Bernard Tschumi Architects

“ The Park could be conceived as one of the largest buildings ever constructed – a discontinuous building, but nevertheless a single structure overlapping in certain areas with the city and existing suburbs.”

Bernard Tschumi, Cinegramme Folie: Le Parc de la Villette, Princeton Architectural Press.

Parc de la Villette was selected as a conceptual precedent. Located on 125 acres of industrial land in northeastern Paris, this park shares a site occupied by the Museum of Science and Technology and an exhibition hall. The park was developed as a series of layered interventions, overlapping to create one space. The result, though hard to read from the scale of the user, is a dynamic landscape. The superposition of a grid of red-metal follies creates a matrix that works to organize the park and contradict the rigid Paris city grid.“An architectural rhythm is established at La Villette by the 10-by-10-by-10-meter follies set 120 meters apart.“ Balmori, Dianne: 36. The follies work to navigate the user through the park’s vast area. Their identical cladding in bright red help to identify them as related structures even though their functions are all different. The follies provide a successful example of how multiple buildings can be linked without physically being attached. This is achieved by their placement in an organized grid and their similar appearance.