Strategies & Places

Block: 16 district: B

Student name: Marloes Dijkink id-number: 0752706

Table of contents page 1. Situation

2. Plan Voisin

1.1 Block 1.2 Context

4 4 7

2.1 Le Corbusiers view

10 10

3. Comparison

3.1 Rue Royale 3.2 Courtyards, Place de la Madeleine and its shops 3.3 Facades, roof and hierarchy 3.4 Sections Pictures Sources

12 12 14 16 18 20 21

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1. Situation 1.1 Block

The building block is situated on Rue de Royale. This street connects Place De La Concorde with L’église de la Madeleine.

And lies alongside this church. The building block has approximately a size of 8000 square meters. The widest and longest distance of the block is 80 by 140 meters. As can be seen in the floor plan, the block is almost squared.

1.1.1 Hierarchy The hierarchy of the building block becomes clear in the ornaments, the width of the streets, and the location of the shops. Peculiar is that shops and restaurants are located on the ground floor around the entire block.

The shops sell mostly luxury goods, such as (high priced) clothing, pastry and other specialist items. There are also two restaurants, a cinema club, an hotel and a café present. Inside the building block, and above the shops are mainly apartments situated.

Noticeable is that the higher priced shops are located on Rue de Royale, Place de la Madeleine, but also on Rue Saint Honoré, even though this last street is much smaller compared to the two other streets. Some shops even use the first floor of the building block. Again, this is mostly done at the streets discussed before.

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fig.1 Building block 16 seen from the North

1. Situation

B’

PLACE DE LA MADELEINE

U RUE D

VAL IE

RD

E SA

INT -GE ORG E

ER OYA LE RU

A’

A

PHOT

B’

A

1.1.2 Ornaments The buildings on Rue Royale and Place de la Madeleine are more detailed, and possess more ornaments. The buildings on the A side of the Rue Du Chevalier de Saint-George and on Rue Duphot are the lowest in hierarchy. Both streets, Rue Du Chevalier de Saint-George especially on the side of Rue Duphot, contain the fewest ornaments on the facades, have the narrowest streets and contain the lower prized shops, compared to the other streets surrounding the building block.

B

A’

ON

OR

É

B fig.2 Floorplan Buildingblock

SECTION A fig. 4 Section A

B

“If the management of the whole was carried out by a developer, then its realization, which depended on private A’ owners and on small companies, hardly ever happened all at once. The block was built in plots, one by one, although these were sometimes grouped so as to form fewer units. A single intervention is rare only for the small operations we have already mentioned and in those cases there is a clear regularity of the block” 1 With this text from the book Urban Forms, can be concluded that the block was built in plots, one by one, and not built by one owner.

DU

TH

RUE

ES AIN

CHE

RU

B’

1.1.3 Courtyards and plots The block contains a dozen courtyards, but they are placed without regularity.

These courtyards become visible in de sections placed below.

SECTION fig.

3 Roof andAcourtyards block

fig.

5 Section B SECTION B 5

M.DIJK

1. Situation 1.1 Block

NOORD

OOST

NOORD

OOST

SHOPS SHOPS

RUE ROYALE

1.1.6 Facades and roof The facades of the building block are dominated by extruded horizontal bands (in red), sometimes just as an ornament, otherwise used as a balcony. The perpendicular corners of the block are flattened, as is done in most of Haussmanns building blocks.

The roof of the block is very irregular, this is because of the different heights of the buildings, caused by the previous discussed landownership.

Though none of the buildings have a flat roof. Some roofs of the plots are separated by walls that extend out of the roof.

fig.6 Rue Royale facade with horizontal bands (in red), shops (in purple) and restaurant (in green)

OOST

fig. 7 East view 6 WEST

ZUID ZUID

WEST WEST

fig. 9 West view

fig. 8 South view B’

B’

1. Situation

1.2 Context

BO

L’EGLISE DE LA MADELEINE

UL EV AR D

DE L

A

M

ET

CH

AD EL EIN

E

ON TR

E

AL OY ER

RU

1.2.1. District Nowadays this is one of the most exclusive districts of Paris. Couples pay a fortune to get married in this church. Place de la Madeleine is also famous for its flower market. In 19th century already painted by Louis Marie de Schryver in picture 11, in front of building block 16.

This exclusiveness becomes also clear in the shops located in this area. As discussed before, in block 16 there are plenty of high priced shops. The other blocks in this area are no exception to that. The biggest branches of France’s best-known delicatessen chains, Hédiard and Fauchon, are located here as well. At Fauchon, foie gras, truffles, chocolate and wine of superior quality can be bought. Also at restaurant Kaspia you can have an expensive ‘déjeuner’ with Béluga kaviar; €599,00 per person.

E RU

As told in the previous chapter, the building block is situated next to L’Eglise de la Madeleine. This building was used as a stock exchange, library and even proposed to become a railway station! Napoleon decided that it had to become a house of worship for his great army. When Napoleon was defeated, the Parisians decided it had to become a church.

fig.10 3D view building block 16 7

1. Situation 1.2 Context

1.2.2 History of the district The Place de la Concorde forms the link pin between several aspects of the structure of Paris. In picture 8 a previous design of Jaques-Ange Gabriëls of Rue Royale and the church can be seen. This design introduces a side axle leading to the later Eglise Madeleine, this planned road is the later built ‘Rue Royale’. This Rue Royale becomes a model for later Boulevards.

In 1778 a bridge across the Seine is built on the extension of the side axle of Gabriëls plan. An obelisk and two fountains are placed that strengthen the side axle. The Eglise Madeleine is built between 1806 and 1842. It is built on a high plinth that is higher than the plinths of the Rue Royale. This has the effect that the church seems closer to the square than it actually is.

Conspicuous is that in this part of Paris, the use of trees on the sides of the roads, is limited. However, trees are placed on Rue Royale, near the Place de la Madeleine. As can be seen in the old postcard, but also in the painting of Louis Marie de Schryver. Possibly this is done to accentuate the ending of the road and the beginning of the square. Figure 13 and 14 show pictures of the current situation.

own choice between picture or text

fig.11 Rue Royale by Louis

Also extraordinary is that the building block is placed several meters back from Rue Royale, compared to the building block next to it. This is also noticeable in the painting (fig 11) and in picture 14.

fig15 Jaques-Ange Gabriëls design of, Place de la Concorde, Rue Royale (1755)

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fig.12 Old postcard of Rue Royale

1. Situation

1.2 Context

fig.14 Rue Royale. Taken from L’église de la Madeleine. On the left is building block 16.

In the distance Place de La Concorde.

fig.13 Rue Royale looking to the church

BLOCK 11 fig. 16 Section crossing Rue Royale

RUE ROYALE

BLOCK 16

BLOCK 45

BLOCK 44 9

2. Plan Voisin

2.1 Le Corbusiers view Plan Voisin is a theoretical plan for a part of the city center of Paris, designed

by Le Corbusier. In the plan the city will be reduced to its monuments, the rest will be demolished. The Unite´ s d’Habitations become the monuments of the present. Except for the motorway crossing the plan, the neighborhood has no streets.

“It is the well-trodden path of the eternal pedestrian, a relic of the centuries, a dislocated organ that can no longer function. The street wears us out. And when all is said and done we have to admit it disgusts us.”

According to Le Corbusier in his paper about Plan Voisin. He explains his plan with its new streets in a visualizing way in the following quote: “So I shall ask my readers to imagine they are walking in this new city, and have begun to acclimatize themselves to its untraditional advantages. You are under the shade of trees, vast lawns spread all round you. The air is clear and pure; there is hardly any noise. What, you cannot see where the buildings are ? Look through the charmingly diapered arabesques of branches out into the sky towards 10

fig.17 Plan Voisin, in red location of building block 16

those widely-spaced crystal towers which soar higher than any pinnacle on earth. These translucent prisms that seem to float in the air without anchorage to the ground - flashing in summer sunshine, softly gleaming under grey winter skies, magically glittering at nightfall - are huge blocks of offices. Beneath each is an underground station (which gives the measure of the interval between them). Since this City has three or four times the density of our existing cities, the distances to be transversed in it (as also the resultant fatigue) are three or four times less. For only 5-10 per cent of the surface area of its business centre is built over. That is why you find yourselves walking among spacious parks remote from the busy hum of the autostrada.

From behind the varying levels of this range of artificial hills we perceive the towering office-buildings rising through the trees like many-facetted crystals. Though spaced at regular intervals of 400 meters they are not orientated in alignment with the motor-roads or foot-paths. Right in their midst we suddenly find ourselves face to face with a charming Gothic church nestling among its belt of

trees : either the Fourteenth-Century St Martin or the Fifteenth-Century St Merry. Further on there is a noble mansion, dating from the reign of Henri IV, of what once was the Marais quarter. Now it has become a club and gravelled walks lead up to it.

Look over there ! That stupendous colonnade which disappears into the horizon as a vanishing thread is an elevated one-way autostrada on which cars cross Paris at lightning speed. ‌ In the new business centre office work will be performed, not in the persistent dimness of joyless streets, but in the fullness of daylight and an abundance of fresh air.

Two hundred meters above it lie the spacious roof-gardens of these office-skycrapers, planted with spindleberries, thuyas, laurels and ivy. The depth of the night makes the prevailing calmness but the deeper.

Armchairs are scattered about. There are groups in conversation, bands playing, couples dancing. And all around are the suspended golden discs of other gardens floating at the same level. The offices are in darkness, their

facades obscured ; the City seems to deep. From far off comes the murmur of the quarters of Paris that remain encrusted in their secular mould.�

With this information we’ve got an idea of what Le Corbusier tried the achieve in his Plan Voisin. His plan translated to a 3D model, can be seen in figure 17. In the distance, the autostrada is visible.

In the new business centre office work will be performed, not in the persistent dimness of joyless streets, but in the fullness of daylight and an abundance of fresh air. Do not smile incredulously.

Its 400,000 clerks will be able to scan a landscape such as that one looks down on from the lofty crests above the Seine near Rouen and behold a serried mass of trees swaying beneath them.

The stillness is absolute, for whence can noise proceed?

fig.18 Building block 16 in Plan Voisin Style

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3. Comparison 3.1 Rue Royale

Plan Voisin

fig.19 Rue Royale in Plan Voisin In these pictures is the Rue Royale visible. As can be seen in the floorplan on the previous page, L’église de la Madeleine is kept in Le Corbusiers’ Plan Voisin.

Also the axis on the Rue Royale will remain, as already suggested by Jaques-Ange Gabriëls in the 18th century. The other buildings in the area are replaced by new residential buildings. People walk through a park, where they can visit their 12

houses. Except for these residential buildings, there are buildings that remind you of the previous Paris, such as L’église de la Madeleine. Underground are the metro lines, that provide mobility for the people. There is also a highway crossing the district. The park has several routes that people can take to reach their destination, these are only for pedestrians and cyclists.

3. Comparison Current Paris

fig.20 Rue Royale in current Paris.

In this picture, you can see the current Paris. This picture is taken at the same spot as the previous. When you compare the two images, you can understand why Le Corbusier was disgusted by the car-based roads of his time. Currently the streets are completely filled with cars, even a lot more that shown in this picture.

On the pavements are people walking, and are shops situated.

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3. Comparison

3.2 Courtyards, Place de la Madeleine and its shops Plan Voisin

This picture provides a better view of Le Corbusiers plan. As you can see, all around the residential buildings is a park like environment. A good reference can be the Funenpark in Amsterdam, where also residential buildings are placed into a park. Where in the current Paris the courtyards are very closed and only allowed for the inhabitants, now are the previous courtyards replaced by open parks, open for everybody.

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fig.21 Rue Royale in Plan Voisin I still wanted to keep the old hierarchy that was in the ‘current day’ Paris. So the Rue Royale remains to be a central axes. Also the Place de la Madeleine will be important in the Le Corbusiers plan. That’s why shops are situated on the ground floor on these places (with the blue windows). But only in this plan the roads will be replaced by a park. The district has to remain his high class character, so the shops that are situated there will be the same sort as in the current Paris.

3. Comparison Current Paris

fig.22 Rue Royale in current Paris.

As you can see in the current Paris, there is barely green in the area, where the inhabitants can relax. Only the Place de la Madeleine can be considered as an area where people can relax, but is also used for commercial services, such as a market. Only the trees provide a green view, but it’s not a usable kind of green.

Every building block has their own courtyards, that in Hausmanns plan, had to

provide an open private space. Today these courtyards are mostly messy, and not used as proposed by Hausmann. There are shops placed all around the building.

The most exclusive shops are placed on the Place de la Madeleine and the Rue Royale.

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3. Comparison

3.3 Facades, roof and hierarchy Plan Voisin

In this picture, you have a better view of the façades of Le Corbusiers’ buildings.

Also as in the current Paris, these facades have horizontal bands. But there are no ornaments, also the roof is flat. These buildings will be built by one developer and are designed by one architect. That’s why the buildings have a uniform appearance.

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fig.23 Rue Royale in Plan Voisin In the current Paris, the hierarchy becomes clear in the number of detail and ornaments in the façade, the location of the high-priced shops and the width of the roads. In this plan, this is only done by the location of the shops, and by the number of roads in the park.

3. Comparison Current Paris

fig.24 Rue Royale in current Paris.

This picture shows the current Paris. The Place de la Madeleine is dominated by cars. The shops placed around this place contain high priced shops on the ground floor.

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3. Comparison 3.4 Sections

Plan Voisin

PARK

11 RUE ROYALE 16

PARK

PARK

44

PARK

fig.25 Section A (green is park, red is building block 16)

PARK

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PARQUE DE LA MADELEINE

PARK

16

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PARK

fig.26 Section B (green is park, red is building block 16) On this page are two sections of Plan Voisin. When you compare these to the current sections, there are a few things that capture our attention: • First of all, the sections cross a lot less buildings in this section, on exactly the same spot, in Plan Voisin compared to the current Paris.

• Also the buildings in Plan Voisin are a lot higher, they all have the same height, namely 25 meters. While in the current Paris, these heights range from 16 meters to 20 meters.

• The roofs of the buildings in plan Voisin are all flat, with no exceptions. The roofs in the current Paris have all an different shape. Most of them have a pointed roof, but some of them even have a curved roof or just a flat roof.

• Another difference is that the buildings in Plan Voisin have more space in between them, compared to the current Paris, where courtyards and (narrow) streets compose the section. Noticeable though is the distance between the opposite buildings in Place de la Madeleine in larger in the current Paris.

B

A

A B fig.29 Sectioncuts Plan Voisin (red is location building block 16)

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3. Comparison Current Paris

BLOCK 11

RUE ROYALE

BLOCK 16

BLOCK 45

BLOCK 44

fig.27 Section C

BLOCK 18

PLACE DE LA MADELEINE

BLOCK 16

BLOCK 14 + 15

fig.28 Section D D

C

C D fig.30 Sectioncuts Paris (red is building block 16) 19

Pictures

Fig 11.Geneamichaud. Georgette Brama, couturière de Mata Hari.

Viewed on http://geneamichaud.free.fr/personnes/gbrama-00.html Fig 12. Saint Sulpice. Paris d’antan - 4ème partie.

Viewed on http://saintsulpice.unblog.fr/2008/07/24/paris-dantan-4eme-partie/ Fig 13. Lecture 7W580. Urban Theory and design of public space.

Viewed on http:// http://www.bwk.tue.nl/stedeb/udp/vak_sites/7w580/7W580_ Baroque.pdf Fig 14. Lecture 7W580. Urban Theory and design of public space.

Viewed on http:// http://www.bwk.tue.nl/stedeb/udp/vak_sites/7w580/7W580_ Baroque.pdf Fig 15. Lecture 7W580. Urban Theory and design of public space.

Viewed on http:// http://www.bwk.tue.nl/stedeb/udp/vak_sites/7w580/7W580_ Baroque.pdf Fig 17. Pop Up City. (2014). Jean-Louis Cohen: Modernist Lessons In PostModernist Times.

Viewed on http://popupcity.net/jean-louis-cohen-modernist-lessons-in-postmodernist-times/ Fig 29.Pop Up City. (2014). Jean-Louis Cohen: Modernist Lessons In PostModernist Times.

Viewed on http://popupcity.net/jean-louis-cohen-modernist-lessons-in-postmodernist-times/

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Biography

Books: Panerai, P., Castex , J., Depaule, J. C. (2004). Urban Forms. Parenthe`ses, Marseilles Digital: Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris. (1925). Plan Voisin, Paris, France. Foundation Corbusier Retrieved from http:/http://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/corbuweb/ morpheus.aspx?sysId=13&IrisObjectId=6159&sysLanguage=en-en&itemPos=2& itemCount=2&sysParentName=Home&sysParentId=65 Rutgers, R. Course 7W580. Urban Theory and design of public space. from hhttp://www.bwk.tue.nl/stedeb/udp/vak_sites/7w580/7W580_Baroque.pdf Websites Parijs Mijn Stad(2010). 8e Arrondissement. Viewed on http://www. parijsmijnstad.nl/arrondissementen/8e/ Insight Guides (2014). Opéra and Grands Boulevards. Viewed on http://www. insightguides.com/destinations/europe/france/paris/city-areas/opra-andgrands-boulevards

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