Systems

Tschumi : Madness + Combinative

“In madness equilibrium is established, but it masks that equilibrium beneath the cloud of illusion, beneath feigned disorder; the rigour of the architecture is concealed beneath the cunning arrangement of these disordered violences.”

–Michel Foucault: ‘Madness and civilization’,1961

This concept of madness acts as a consistent reference point throughout the La Villette while it appears to illustrate the situation of twentieth century with all its disjunctions and alienations between form, use and the social values. This idea is practically transformed in the form of ‘Folies’ 5 due to its ability to function as an autonomous object that is open to receiving new meanings with the changing times and social construct. The Folies, organized in a grid of 120m intervals which after putting in place, achieves a reality that differentiates it from being a simple geometric pattern. It functions as a system of Points that possesses the status of ‘objects’ that activate space and emphasize ‘occurring events’than just gratuitous stylistic play. In an elaborate theme of variation, it allows one to read the site symbolically and structurally while permitting the highest level of programmatic flexibility and invention It rules out all the hierarchy within the structure of the park and treats the whole as one uniform grid

This is combined with the system of movements and system of spaces which are translated in the form of lines and surfaces The formation of the encounter of the three systems work by their own logic, particularities and limits. The programmatic requirements are deconstructed on the entire site in this arrangement of points of intensity (follies) supported by the system of movement facilitating North-South links between the two Paris gates and the subway stations.