Throughout history, La Defense, the central business district of Paris, has continually re-evaluated its identity in relation to changing ideas of Modernity. Originally intended to be an area of separate towers for living and working with a liberated ground plane for the cultivation of the self, the plan was not realized and La Defense grew into a business district exclusively for work isolated from the rest of the city.
This project attempts to recover Modernity by re-appropriating some of the ideals of the original plan with separate zones of living, working, transportation, and self-cultivation in response to the spatial conditions in Nanterre, a western suburb of Paris.
Historic Paris; La Defense
Nanterre: Existing; Proposed
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The historical condition of Paris operates as a homogeneous mass that sets up a clear relationship with the Axe Historique, a boulevard that runs through Paris. The axis creates a void which organizes the dense city. In La Defense, the axis becomes more ambiguous with the addition of an elevated deck. Today within the existing fabric of Nanterre, the axis is not a powerful mechanism of organization ‘Axial Density’ proposes to continue the axis, an existing organizational technique, into Nanterre with a linear building establishing its importance in a historical context.
SPATIAL PLANNING
The supportive and anticipatory move connects the disparate neighborhoods of Nanterre by creating a spine for future development and giving the area a relationship with historic Paris. In order to anticipate planned residential development and contrast the existing central business district of Paris, the proposed building claims the axis as a space for self-cultivation, a type of leisure towards self-improvement, in the Nanterre region. Just as cities develop business districts to compete globally, this project proposes the need for a leisure district to break the live-work cycle
JUXTAPOSING PROGRAM
The axis has a thickness and creates space for the proposed linear mass. A series of boolean operations, informed by the current conditions of Nanterre, were used to carve spaces out of the mass to create openings for connections to planned areas of development. The linear building responds to existing programs and is intended to create a delirious experience for users through the juxtaposition of radically different leisure activities. The type, size, and duration of various leisure activities was mapped on a diagram and used as a tool for configuring program along the axis.
A MONUMENT
Axial Density’ is a monument in succession with numerous other monuments situated along the Axe Historique. The project is a proposal for a new monument typology. The linear mass is a monumental space to be used by the people rather than a traditional monumental statue.