while the architectural complex is much talked-about
it is first and foremost a housing complex
Landlord CDC Habitat recently launched a major renovation project at the Espaces Abraxas (according to BFM TV)
more than 40 years after it opened to the public
the project aims to refresh the façades of the Palacio d'Abraxas
bring the plumbing and ventilation systems up to standard
In the meantime, Explore Paris offers guided tours of Noisy-le-Grand's architectural ensembles - vastly preferable to impromptu visits that can upset the locals since
this is first and foremost a place to live - to discover the history of the place
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The Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand is known for its architecturally unique environment, most notably home to the Espaces d'Abraxas
Similar in concept but much different in style
the Arènes de Picasso or "Picasso's Arenas" is a massive housing complex consisting of 540 residences
designed by Spanish architect Manuel Núñez Yanowsky
The complex is locally nicknamed "camemberts" after its iconic round façades
a pair of circles facing one another across a promenaded square
this post-modernist colossus is supposed to be an abstract representation of an overturned cart
A cluster of cylindrical apartment buildings nod to the city’s vegital past
The unique design of these skyscrapers in a Paris suburb led to them being nicknamed "cloud towers."
an example of Art Deco Streamline Moderne style
was designed to embody the curves of a great ship
architectural experiment designed to increase a resident's longevity
After local authorities changed the design
the building is the best example of Spanish organicist architecture in Madrid
This spaceship-like structure was once a popular roadside restaurant
A medieval shrine set into a towering canyon wall
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“Designed to eventually accommodate more than 1200 students, the new International High School to the east of Paris is deeply rooted in the Grand Paris (Greater Paris) project : to rebalance the city to the east as well as its insertion, at several scales, within the vast landscape at the edge of the Marne-la-Vallée plateau, overlooking the Marne River and the capital - both poised and raised on the city horizon.
The project is also strongly influenced by its exemplary sustainable development approach and durability : built on a tight budget that is expressed in the explicit simplicity of its volumes. The in-depth work on energy and the elements (water/air/earth) makes it the first 'zero energy' high school in the Ile-de-France Region.
© Luc BoeglyThis quality also precedes the work on the adjoining landscape, on the role of nature and planting in the high school. It contributes to the location of two appreciated gardens suspended overhead at the very centre of the edifice, but also the quality of the gardens and the external areas of the high school that are structured on the terraced slope with perennials, inscribed into the distant views from the site.
© Luc BoeglyThe ‘place-forte concept - beyond this high school - today becomes an ambition that every architect confronted with the mutations procurement in France
should assert in the role of edifices as well as the urban project
Especially for public works that should be identified as strong volumes set out in series within the public space
on this major site in the city”.Text by: Jean Mas
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The famous French singer and pianist Véronique Sanson is the source of many hits
including"Vancouver","Amoureuse","Rien que de l'eau","Pour me comprendre","Ma révérence" and"Besoin de personne"
Véronique Sanson will be lighting up the Fête de la Musique in Noisy-le-Grand with an exceptional free concert on Friday June 21
The opening act will be the winner of the Scène tremplin
who will have the chance to perform on stage
Tuesday
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Town authorities in Noisy-le-Grand have launched a call for projects to reconvert the short stretch of metro line that was built in 1993 but never used
By Denis Cosnard
In Noisy-Le-Grand (Seine-Saint-Denis)
DENIS COSNARD In the ticket office
there is still the old ticket machine sitting on the pink granite floor
except for an extra in a promotional film for RATP (Paris's transport network)
in Seine-Saint-Denis (north-east of Paris)
was supposed to represent the height of modernity
rooms flooded and equipment knocked over: 30 years after its construction
the small metro line that was never actually put into service has been badly damaged and is about to be dismantled for good
It's a prerequisite for this unusual site's second life
Noisy-le-Grand's town council will launch a call for projects to find a new use for the abandoned station and tunnel
so that the inauguration can take place "before 2026" and before the next municipal elections
we would have had to debate the project first at the municipal council," said local politicians from the Green party Eric Manfredi
You have 72.52% of this article left to read
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Photographer Laurent Kronental spent four years documenting the lives of older citizens living in the Grands Ensembles housing estates built around Paris after the second world war for his Souvenir d’un Futur project
Photographer Laurent Kronental spent four years documenting the lives of older citizens living in the Grands Ensembles housing estates built around Paris after the second world war for his Souvenir d’un Futur project
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surrounded by elegant cream-colored stone Haussmanians
gifted with pockets of bucolic cobblestone streets and charmed by old-world cafés and façades
But stray to the suburbs of Eastern Paris and you’ll find what looks like an alternate universe in comparison
a failed post-war “city of Babel” with Pharaonic structures of decaying concrete
If you’re thinking this looks like an apocalyptic film set
Hollywood has used it on two occasions to set the scene for a dystopian world; Brazil in 1985 and most recently for the final instalment of the Hunger Games trilogy
Photographer Laurent Kronental has spent four years photographing postmodern Parisian housing estates
rural outflow and house a migrant population while meeting the needs in modern housing
These areas are today commonly stigmatised in the media and marginalised by public opinion
which covers several enclaves of the Parisian suburbs
is a tribute to the senior citizens living in what is known as the “Grands Ensembles” of the Paris region
Kronental’s documentation included a number of large estates across the Parisian Suburbs
the Cité du Parc and Cité Maurice-Thorez in Ivry-sur-Seine
the Pavé Neuf and the Espace d’Abraxas in Noisy-le-Grand and even two areas in the 19th arrondissement of Paris known as Les Orgues de Flandre and Cité Curial-Cambrai
Born of a theoretical utopia and dubbed a new French “City in Space”
the Espaces Abraxas in Noisy-le-Grand were designed by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill in the late 70s and early 80s
The aim was to mix social classes and build a theatrical landmark
These buildings consist of 610 apartments in what looks like a surreal ocean of concrete
Ricardo Bofill recently stated in an interview with Le Monde that he believed he could change the city
he acknowledged these areas have suffered a lack of community spirit
emphasized by the closed nature of the structure
(It’s quite interesting to see Bofill’s portfolio of his career here)
despite a feeling of near-apocalyptic abandonment captured consciously by the photographer
there still remains a very strong but presence of life
The council of the Espaces d’Abraxas was forced to abandon demolition plans for parts of the development in 2006 following the residents’ outright opposition
this ageing concrete city of the future has become their unlikely home
Another “utopian” Parisian residency
From what Laurent Kronental observed during his frequent visits to the suburbs
“Resignation and expectation blend on dignified faces and solitary spaces together with skepticism and confidence
personify the fragile strength of a youth having blindly aged.”
“The original population is nearing the endgame
as if doomed to share the fate of the walls that have circumscribed their lives,” says Kronental
who has felt compelled to capture the fate of these buildings and of the urban veterans that live in them before they all vanish
It’s also worth noting that the Orwellian vision (which sits on the outskirts of Paris) has a kindred spirit in another
more centrally located residency called the “Orgues de Flandre” (see below) that was designed by Martin van Trek and completed from 1974 to 1980
Last Updated on April 6, 2020 by Elizabeth Atanassova
By NICK CRAVEN and PETER ALLEN IN PARIS
Published: 08:16 BST, 16 September 2024 | Updated: 11:17 BST, 16 September 2024
This is the house in a respectable Paris suburb where the 'Monster of Avignon' lived an apparently normal life, even though the demons that would drive him to commit his unspeakable crimes, were already secretly taking hold.
Former electrician Dominique Pélicot, 71, stands accused of routinely drugging his wife Gisele to be violated by dozens of strangers he met on the internet.
The depravity recounted in the court in Avignon this month all allegedly took place since 2013 after the couple retired and moved more than 400 miles away from the French capital to Provence.
But it comes as Pélicot's mass rape trial resumed without him on Monday, with his lawyer citing ill health for his absence. His lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro, said he was suffering from 'a clot in the bladder' and the beginning of a kidney infection.
Now, it has emerged that while playing the part of a hard-working family man in this large detached house in Noisy-le-Grand, half an hour outside Paris, Pélicot was anything but.
Pictured: Dominique Pélicot's old family home in Noisy-le-Grand, half an hour outside Paris
Dominique Pelicot is accused of recruiting men online to assault his wife repeatedly over a 10 year period
A general view of Dominique Pélicot's old family home in Noisy-le-Grand, near Paris
Gisele Pelicot arrives at court in Avignon, France for week two of the trial
Officers from the Paris Criminal Brigade have continually visited Pélicot in his cell at Baumettes prison in Marseille, where he has been on remand since 2020.
They continually interrogate him about his life in the greater Paris area.
For not only has he admitted to the brutal sexual assault of a young woman estate agent in 1999, identified only as Estella B, 19, he has also been charged with the murder of Sophie Narme, 23, also an estate agent in 1991.
In chilling echoes of Britain's infamous Suzy Lamplugh case, lured to her death by the mysterious 'Mr Kipper', (widely suspected to be serial rapist John Cannan) Sophie Narme had agreed to meet a man who gave his name as 'Monsieur Duboste' for a flat viewing in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, to the north-west of the city.
Soon afterwards her naked body was found, face-down on the blood-soaked carpet, with a belt still fastened round her neck. In a frenzied onslaught, Sophie had been stabbed, raped, and strangled.
Her killer was never identified, but May 1999 saw a second shockingly similar attack on an estate agent - again lured to meet a supposed potential client alone.
The apartment where Estella B. was attacked was in Villeparisis, only a 25-minute drive from Noisy-le-Grand, where Pelicot lived with his wife and three children.
Estella, who survived the brutal encounter, told police that soon after entering the flat, her assailant began choking her, then he placed a knife to her neck, and forced her to the floor, rendering her unconscious with an ether-soaked rag.
A street sign outside Dominique Pélicot's old family home in Noisy-le-Grand
Sophie Narme (pictured) was an estate agent who was murdered after she agreed to meet a man for a flat viewing in the 19th arrondissement of Paris in 1999
Pelicot lived in the family home with his wife and three children
The Pelicots' daughter Caroline gave evidence in a harrowing testimony last week
However, the young woman somehow came round and managed to fend him off, whereupon he panicked and fled.
And in a shocking twist to the story of Pélicot's appalling crimes, it has emerged that the bureaucratic French legal system missed a golden opportunity to stop him in his tracks more than 14 years ago.
But for the legal red tape, he might well have been prevented from becoming what his own daughter described as 'one of the worst sexual predators of the last 20 years.'
In 2010, it was at a Carrefour supermarket in Collégien, a town in Seine-et-Marne, only five miles from Noisy, that Pélicot was caught by security guards filming up customers' skirts.
He escaped with a derisory €100 fine as part of a plea bargain – an alternative procedure to prosecution, allowing a perpetrator who acknowledges his guilt to be tried quickly.
But that year, the national automated genetic fingerprint database matched Pélicot's DNA with a trace of sperm found on Estella B.'s shoe eleven years earlier.
Yet because the Estella B. case was closed in 2001, the DNA 'match' was not used.
'There was a mess at the time,' said a judicial source close to the case. 'The information remained in a blind spot of justice, and Pélicot remained free. He was arrested ten years later, after raping and inviting dozens of men to rape his wife.'
It was during police interviews with Pélicot on remand in October 2022 that interrogators raised the Estella B. and Sophie Narme cases following requests from the newly-formed cold case unit in Nanterre, north-west of Paris.
Gisele Pelicot, 72, arrives at court in Avignon, France
A general view of the area around Dominique Pélicot's old family home in Noisy-le-Grand
Madame Pelicot, 72, relived the trauma that she experienced when police investigator showed her graphic films of her being raped repeatedly by her husband Dominique
This is when the DNA match to the 1999 Estella B case was finally made.
When confronted by the DNA evidence, during a third interrogation on the subject, Pélicot told officers in his interview statement: 'I'm going to tell you the truth. About this young woman who had to grow up and who is questioning herself. It's me.'
Pélicot, who was 46 at the time, said he had an uncontrollable 'urge' to approach her at the time, yet still denied he was intent on rape.
'What would have happened if she hadn't pulled away' he was asked.
'You were still well on your way to raping her.'
Later he insisted to the investigating judge that he had no plan to rape her, claiming he 'just intended to immobilize her (…), maybe to look at her.'
Hardly surprisingly, given the enormity of the case building against Pélicot, his protestations did not prevent him being charged with attempted rape with a weapon.
Investigators soon linked the case with the Sophie Narme one from December 4, 1991 in Paris, because of the disturbing similarities with the Estella B case.
Due to yet another unforgivable lapse in the machinery of justice, there is no DNA from Pélicot - nor any other attacker - in the Narme case.
Béatrice Zavarro, Pélicot's lawyer, said: 'The DNA in the case was lost by the sealed service, there is no evidence to link it.'
The judicial investigation into these two cases is 'nearing completion', according to the Nanterre prosecutor's office, meaning trials are likely in 2025.
The imposing £1.3m, five-bedroom former Pélicot family home in Noisy-le-Grand stands on a large corner plot and is largely shrouded from view by many trees and green privacy netting attached to the high fence with its overgrown hedgerow.
One neighbour vaguely recalls the Pélicots, but adds, glancing with a shudder at the horrifying newspaper reports from the Avignon court: 'we did not know them – they were a private family.'
David and Florian Pelicot enter the courtroom on the morning of Monday, September 9
The Pelicot's old house has five bedrooms and is worth £1.3million
The house was rented, and according to the Pélicots' daughter Caroline Payronnet, it was provided by the company for which her mother Gisele worked in a well-paid management job in Paris.
But her father's employment history as an electrician and a sometime estate agent, was more patchy.
Caroline recalled in her candid and heart-rending 2022 book 'And I Stopped Calling You Papa' how their brittle façade of middle-class respectability came tumbling down when the bailiffs called.
'I was almost fifteen when one day, coming home from school to have lunch at home, a police officer accompanied by a bailiff and a horde of removal men burst into our house to take away all the furniture in our living room. My father had been preparing for this for a few days.
'He had put away certain equipment that he considered essential, such as the stereo and the living room television. I can see myself insulting these poor movers in their truck.
that my maternal grandfather had passed on to his daughter
This piece of furniture had stood in our living room since I was born
it was the only trace for me of this late grandfather… and ended up at auction
That didn't stop my father from giving my mother a gold ring set with semi-precious stones
'He was acting like a teenager caught doing something wrong
My mother then asked him to return the ring and get his money back.'
It would be many years later that Caroline
by now only too aware of the horrors perpetrated on her mother by her father and his accomplices
that she too may have been drugged as a teenager while living in Noisy-le-Grand
She told the court how she had been called by a detective and told that the officer had 'something to show me.'
'He tells me to sit down and he says he has two photos to show me
The first photo is of a woman who is apparently sleeping lying on her side with the light on
'I still don't recognise myself and then the policeman says to me; 'but it's definitely you with that brown spot on your cheek'
'I discover that my father photographed me without my knowledge
I understood immediately that it was me in those photos
So I strongly believe that he drugged me.'
Recalling the moment in her gruelling autobiography
she said: 'How could he take a picture of me in the middle of the night without waking me up
last week faced down the 51 men – including her husband – accused of her rape
The sexual fantasies were played out at their picturesque chalet home in the Provence village of Mazan (pictured)
'The light is too bright not to have woken me up
The photos were taken in two different places and at two very distinct times.'
'Where did these panties come from that I wear in the photo
But I know that they go back a few years.'
In the book she also recalled as a young child
seeing her father being violent towards her mother
'My parents did not really succeed in protecting me from their relationship problems
nor from those related to their financial situation
'I learned very early on what it meant to be 'faced with a major problem.' I was not yet nine years old when I witnessed a scene of domestic violence
I saw my father lift my mother up with both hands by the collar of her shirt
She recalled how her father rarely succeeded at anything he tried
and how she felt more like the adult in their relationship
She wrote: 'My father very often circumvented the system to give us the illusion that he was getting by
when he tried to retrain in sectors other than his own
'Or when he improvised as a business manager with our help
We had lent him funds to set up an SARL (limited company) in the service sector
he filed for bankruptcy and ended up in an even more critical situation
His ambitions and decisions often put us in difficulty
my mother had a stable position as an executive
in a company where she worked for more than twenty years.'
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On January 23, Rosé de Blackpink made a remarkable appearance on stage at the Paris La Défense Arena. Invited to perform live as part of the 2025 edition of the Gala des Pièces Jaunes
the K-pop singer dazzled her fans with a rendition of her hits " stay a little longer "
located in the famous Mont d'Est district of Noisy-le-Grand
designed by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill
Espaces Abraxas has become a preferred location for numerous film shoots over the years
The location was used as a set for the feature films"Brazil" and"Hunger Games"
Several music videos have also been shot here
including those by Stéphanie de Monaco (" Ouragan ")
Michel Berger (" Ça ne tient pas debout ") and Cheb Mami (" Parisien du Nord ")
The neo-classical architecture of the Espaces Abraxas also seems to have caught the eye of Rosé
who decided to shoot the video for his latest track " number one girl " there
a Gnostic mystery and probable mistransliteration that has fascinated for two millennia
That which is spoken by God-the-Sun is life; that which is spoken by the Devil is death; abraxas speaketh that hallowed and accursed word which is life and death at the same time
light and darkness in the same word and in the same act
— From the third of Carl Jung’s Seven Sermons to the Dead (1916)
“Les Espaces d’abraxas” (literally “abraxas’s spaces”) is the name architect Ricardo Bofill gave to the 600-dwelling social housing project he and his Taller de Arquitectura built at Noisy-le-Grand
It was one of several such projects realized by Bofill in France
all of which he intended as alternatives to the Modernist grands ensembles that had dominated public-sector housing production in France’s postwar era
To counter what was perceived as the soullessness and lack of identity that reigned at the grands ensembles — which mostly took the form of utilitarian slabs and towers set among grass and parking — Bofill abandoned their concern for rational organization around sunlight and vehicular access in favor of high-density monumental “Baroque” planning dressed up in columns
his Neoclassical housing projects were built using standardized high-quality prefabricated-concrete elements developed in partnership with construction companies
Abraxas was conceived as a “Versailles for the people” — as Bofill memorably described an earlier scheme at St.-Quentin-en-Yvelines
Three edifices make up the Abraxas project: the cliff-like 19-story Palacio
enclosed at the center of the space formed by these two mastodons
An obvious descendant of grandiose Classicizing Eastern-bloc schemes like Moscow’s Seven Sisters or Berlin’s Stalin- (now Karl-Marx-) allee
Abraxas nonetheless differentiates itself by eschewing their discredited Social Realism in favor of a troubling mantle of Surrealism
melancholy spaces of Giorgio de Chirico that are embodied in a self-reflexive seeing machine
a claustrophobic auto-policing Panopticon where a thousand blank eyes stare down you in dumb surveillance
the inflation of scale often renders form and content out of synch — columns turn out to be staircase towers or living-room windows
while entire apartments shelter in a two-story Doric frieze
Abraxas stood in for the FBI headquarters in Mais qui a tué Pamela Rose
and for dystopia in general in Brazil (1984)
Or as Bofill himself said about an earlier Maison d’Abraxas he planned but never built at St.-Quentin
“The staircase will stop at a platform from which one could listen to music by Wagner..
Photography by Devin Blair
A version of this story was published in PIN–UP 13
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a number of “grands ensembles,” or housing projects
were constructed in the suburbs to meet an increased demand in housing needs by migrants
Laurent Kronental describes the four years he spent photographing the elderly residents of the housing complexes
located in areas that have historically been economically and socially isolated from the rest of the Parisian metro area
This sense of isolation among residents is tangible in Kronental’s series “Souvenir d’un Futur” (“Memory of a Future”)
I have photographed the seniors living in the large estates of the Parisian suburbs with a 4×5 large format film camera
One area in particular profoundly fascinated me: the Espaces d’Abraxas
I remember the first time I arrived at the foot of this concrete giant
I was captivated by its timeless architecture; this spectacular and mysterious estate
A future that did not come to pass has left its imprint on the landscape in the form of these towns
I came there many times before taking this photo
It shows an a 88-year-old man named Joseph who had lived in Noisy-le-Grand for many years
he contemplates a monumental and strangely ghostly landscape where only some quiet signs of life appear
I imagined him as one of the last survivors in a post-apocalyptic universe
where the elderly live their lives in the titanic structures that have engulfed their humanity
In the foreground appears a massive building whose curvature recalls a theater
about the place of these urban veterans in our society
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is an homage to the senior citizens of the French capital's Grand Ensemble region — not only in Noisy-le-Grand but across the Parisian banlieue
His photographs capture a number of places and their people which
in spite of their often megalomaniacal architectural settings
See Laurent Kronental's photo series—the result of four years of visits—after the break
In 2006, Noisy-le-Grand sought to demolish parts of the development. After being met by widespread resentment from the population of Espaces Abraxas, the decision was made to keep them standing — for now. Kronental's photographs demonstrate very clearly that in spite of any assumed architectural or urban failings, these houses have been appropriated by their residents. In spite of the atmosphere of emptiness that Kronental has consciously captured, houses have become homes.
personify the fragile strength of a youth having blindly aged
Laurent Kronental photographed a number of other large estates across the Parisian Suburbs alongside Les Espaces d'Abraxas and Le Pavé Neuf in Noisy-le-Grand
La Cité du Parc and the Cité Maurice-Thorez in Ivry-sur-Seine
Les Arcades du Lac and Le Viaduc in Montigny-le-Bretonneux
Les Orgues de Flandre and La Cité Curial-Cambrai in the 19th Arrondissement of Paris
In partnership with theGrand Paris Est conurbation and a number of local associations
the town of Noisy-le-Grand is organizing its very first Tree Festival on Saturday
with the aim of highlighting the actions put in place to make Noisy greener
The general public will be able to take part in a (participative) tree-planting event at the Grenouillère
or benefit from the distribution of trees (Indian lilac
field maple and many other varieties) and green indoor plants at the municipal horticultural center
there will also be a range of activities - and the good news is that they're free and open to all
So let's head for Noisy-le-Grand, in the Seine-Saint-Denis département
L'Atelier des Gourmands won the competition in the"entrepreneurs" category
A fine reward for its owner Haithem Ben Haj Yahia
Fournil de la gare in Aulnay-sous-Bois and Maison Sohier in Noisy-le-Grand took 2nd and 3rd place respectively
Ali Dagouig from the Tangarfa bakery in Bondy took first place
followed by Christophe Mayland working at L'Atelier des Artistes in Romainville
Lassana Traoré of the Tangarfa bakery finished first in the"apprentices" category
find out the results of the 2025 Seine-Saint-Denis trophy for the best traditional French baguette
Congratulations to the winners and all the participants
Perhaps you've heard of them, since they served as the filming location for the blockbuster Hunger Games (film number III, part 2)? This building is the Palacio d'Abraxas
a social housing complex inaugurated in 1983 to promote social diversity in the town of Noisy-le-Grand
is the work of Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill
who also designed the Antigone district in Montpellier
and the Lac complex in Montigny-le-Bretonneux..
All inspired by the same neoclassical style and in line with thepostmodernist architecture that gives the buildings their distinctive design
The complex is located in the Mont-d'Est district of Noisy-le-Grand
The massive building has a total of 18 storeys and stands out from the Noisy landscape
which faces the Theater (below): these two parts of the architectural complex are the best known
having been featured in the Hollywood blockbusters the Hunger Games and Brazil
which is why the municipality of Noisy-le-Grand was considering demolishing it in 2010
local residents campaigned to keep the building intact
a renovation of the Abraxas spaces has been under consideration
enabling the neighborhood to be transformed and 800 new homes to be created
Designed by (also Spanish) architect Manuel Nuñez Yanowsky in 1981
the Arènes de Picasso complex was inaugurated in 1985 in Noisy-le-Grand
as part of theurban planning of the new towns built in the 1960s to house the large number of people living in the Paris region in the aftermath of the Second World War
several new towns were being built around Paris: Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
All these new districts had the ambition of creating a social mix, so the government called on architects to propose innovative urban designs. As a result, a number ofpost-modernist architectural projects are flourishing, such as those by Ricardo Bofill in Cergy, Montigny-le-Bretonneux and the Espaces d'Abraxas in the Mont-d'Est district of Noisy
In the Pavé-Neuf district of Noisy-le-Grand
Manuel Nuñez Yanowsky is also a member of the post-modern architecture movement
Yanowsky's architectural style is inspired by the past
with symbolic forms forming the core of his architectural creations
with a building complex composed half of social housing and half of private housing
the site takes its inspiration from ancient times
and more specifically from Roman chariots: indeed
the space has been designed to echo the arenas in which gladiators fought to the death
and the "camemberts" are actually the wheels of a Roman chariot
The "camemberts" are actually the wheels of a Roman chariot
The camemberts represent the wheels of the chariot and
What do the feature films Hunger Games (by Francis Lawrence)
Brazil (by Terry Gilliam) and Big Bug (by Pierre Jeunet) have in common
They all feature scenes filmed at the Palacio d'Abraxas in Noisy-le-Grand
if you're dreaming of discovering this unique site designed by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill in the Paris region
And who better to introduce you to Les Espaces d'Abraxas than a resident of the complex itself
Thanks to training provided by the Conseil architecture
urbanisme et environnement de la Seine-Saint-Denis (CAUE 93)
Espaces resident Samir Rouab offers you a guided tour of his neighborhood
The tour is recommended for people aged 15 and over
hours and takes place in the heart of Espaces d'Abraxas
not far from the Noisy Mont d'Est RER A station
Given that Espaces d'Abraxas is a residential area
it's highly inadvisable to go there to shoot photos and videos under normal circumstances
so these guided tours are the perfect opportunity to discover one of Seine-Saint-Denis' most famous filming locations
This week’s featured project is a truly brilliant series by Parisian photographer Laurent Kronental
Laurent’s series Souvenir d’un Futur documents the lives of senior citizens who live in “Grands Ensembles” (large housing projects) around Paris
Laurent’s photographs are described as “tinted with melancholic
The majestic mass of the futuristic vessels seems to drift across an ocean of concrete.”
This captivating series took place over 4 years and shows the residents – and structures – marked by the passing of time
Laurent has given us a lot of great insight into both his thought process
Laurent shares “I began to photograph the elderly who live in the large estates of Paris region 4 years ago
I think that initially I was really influenced by my experience in China where I lived 6 months in 2008
The big cities of this territory stunned me by their gigantic size
their contrasts and the way the human being lives in this abundant and over populated town planning
I was literally absorbed by the atmosphere of the megalopolis and by its astounding mix of futurism and tradition
It certainly unconsciously stimulated the search for a juxtaposition of ages in my later projects
I discovered a tiny little street where time seemed suspended for 50 years – countryside at the foot of office buildings of La Défense business district
I befriended a couple of old people and started to photograph them
Their traditional garden offered a stark contrast with the surrounding skyline of towers
I developed a great attraction towards the architecture of the “Grands Ensembles” (large housing projects)
Two areas next to my home have been essential in my approach: “Les Damiers” at Courbevoie and “Les Tours Aillaud” (they are also called “Tours Nuages” or “Cité Pablo Picasso”) at Nanterre
as if their reason for being oscillated between past and present
Then I discovered in 2011 other examples of monumental and spectacular architecture around Paris and in the capital
origins of their construction and their place in the actual society
I am fascinated by their oversized urbanism and their look both rough and poetic
I have always been inspired by seniors and I had this deep feeling to put them at the front stage
know their life and try to deconstruct this sometimes depreciating image of the old age which arises from our society
I then said to myself that there was a subject to explore both on the passing of the generations as well as on the impact of time on the architecture and the lives which it tries to harmonize.”
In my personal favorite image from the series
Laurent paints a forlorn yet majestic picture
Having Jacques stand at the edge of the viaduct gives us a lovely sense of scale
It is easy to see how in his younger years
appreciating the Montigny-le-Bretonneux’s grandeur
“I desired to question myself about conditions of their existence
to pour some light on the generation that we forget sometimes
I wanted to express my feelings of the poetry in front of this universe
which seems to age slowly and take with it the memories of a modernist utopia,” Laurent says
“I wanted to undertake a project which associates men and architecture
It was thus essential to gather these two worlds in one same photographic series
While tackling the large housing estates issue
I wondered whether urban structures were adapted to the needs of their inhabitants
in which the person is lost in the vast neighborhood
I wanted to show the scale ratios and interactions between the person and his city.”
I aim at questioning the spectator about the forgetting of the old age
At a time when all the intentions are directed on youth
maintaining indifference and prejudice toward seniors
this vision creates a shock by recalling the existence of these people and by highlighting their problems
with the strength of their dignified and elegant posture
asserts their fight against the age and their implanting in their housing place
They are the only ones to fill up the space in this series from which youth has purposely been obliterated
By settling down in these futuristic buildings then
Laurent’s perspective here shows the sprawling nature of these massive housing complexes
who is stepping out of the door to the grassy rooftop
stating “I made this series with the will to keep the memory of a generation so that in the future our society and its architectures allow by their structures and their services departments to give back a social role to our elders
the legitimacy and the respect which are owed to them
with so much surprise as I was able to have
I would wish that they feel so much fascination and curiosity with regard to such constructions
I want that we wonder about the future of these districts
that we pay attention on their population put aside.”
“I chose to work with a large film camera 4×5 giving the possibilities of tilt-shifts which allow to glorify the architecture and its dimensions
to gain in height and in width while keeping straight ahead the lines of buildings; for the analog rendering of the large format which is fabulous both in its sweetness
its relief and its precision; for the process of photographic creation which urges us to be more requiring in the choice of images and framings and which brings a different relationship with the subject
Many thanks to Laurent for sharing this beautiful project with us
It wonderfully shows the relationship between humans and architecture
Head over to Laurent’s website laurentkronental.com to see all 26 photographs in the Souvenir d’un Futur project, as well as his other gorgeous work. You can also follow Laurent on Instagram @laurentkronental
After a fire broke out and completely destroyed the Chabad House in Noisy-Le-Grand
one of the first Chabad Houses to be set up in France
an appeal has been set up to help the shluchim rebuild
the Beis Chabad of Noisy-Le-Grand in France a fire broke out in the shul which entirely destroyed the building
one of which was donated by the Rebbe thirty-five years ago in 5748/1988
a young medical student got the revelation of his life when he met the Rebbe in Yechidus
Benchetrit went on to become a full-flung lubavticher and opened his own Chabad house and the first in France in the city of Noisy- Le- Grand
where all the Jews that lived there were assimilated
Dr./Rabbi David Benchetrit created a Talmud Torah with his little sister Rebbetzin Atarah Guez a”h
who in turn devoted her house and life to the creation of the Beis Chabad of Romainville with the Rebbe’s Bracha for more than thirty years
Rebbetzin Delia worked endlessly in the establishment of their community and the construction of a Mikvah in their yard in 5748/1988
They sacrificed and devoted their lives to the Jewish community and brought countless lost Jews back to Teshuva with so much genuine love and dedication in completing the mission the Rebbe bequeathed the Shluchim of Noisy-Le-Crand
the Beis Chabad of Noisy-le-Grand is left with nothing but ashes
An appeal for donations has been launched to the entire Jewish community to mobilize and financially help the rapid rebuilding of the heart of the Jewish community of Noisy-Le-Grand
You can support the rebuilding of Franc’s first Chabad house here. and see a video of the damage
Notify me via e-mail if anyone answers my comment
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The legendary Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill was called upon to bring back to life the Abraxas Spaces
a residential complex he designed 40 years ago in France
There are several versions - what was the reason for the decline and marginalization of this example of postmodern architecture
And the main one: Abraxas is the biggest mistake in the career of the brilliant Bofill
now the architect has an opportunity to correct it
The Greater Paris Development Plan (d'Aménagement de la Région Parisienne) and the directive scheme of organization and urban planning of the Paris region
provided for the large-scale redevelopment of five satellite cities and the construction of five new cities
this project can be compared to the "Ottomanization" of Paris - just as Baron Haussmann changed the appearance of the capital of France
so the "New Cities" (Villes nouvelles) radically transformed the Parisian suburbs
It is only 14 and a half kilometers from the center of Paris to Noisy-le-Grand
the area at the entrance to Marne-la-Vallee
the authorities of the commune of Noisy-le-Grand set aside the Mont d'Est plot for residential development
setting a condition: the new houses must be a declaration of respect for the person
was inspired by the revolutionary works of the architect Bofill and saw in them an alternative to banal linear buildings
known for its original and conceptual approach to design
was invited by the authorities of Noisy-le-Grand and received carte blanche to conduct an architectural and social experiment
In the team of the Catalan architectural firm Taller de Arquitectura
Ricardo Bofill was not the only architect who designed a residential development in Marne-la-Vallee
Christian de Portzampark and others worked on the creation of objects in the "new city"
But only the fate of Abraxas turned out to be dramatic
always strove to ensure that architecture did not stand out from its historical
he tries to find the "genius loci" - the genius of the place
Having received a large-scale order for the construction of social housing in France in the late seventies
Beaufill decided that the most organic style for the Parisian suburbs was a mixture of classicism and French baroque
Guided by the principle of the outstanding Renaissance sculptor and architect Bramante
he decided to create an ensemble of several buildings in a single style
And since this residential complex was located at the westernmost point of the Marne-la-Vallee
the Catalan architect always considered himself an antagonist of Corbusier with his functionalism
and the scale of the project opened Bofill almost unlimited opportunities for experiments with new technologies in construction
Abraxas resembles a stylized Greek theater
with the Arch building as the focal point in the center of the circular orchestra lawn; the Teatr building is a crescent-shaped amphitheater
the architect appealed to Gnostic symbolism
in which Abraxas is an ancient deity symbolizing the primordial principle and creative energy
considering the complex fate of the palace
associations with Thomas More's novel "Utopia" arise
because Abraxas is an early name of the island
there is an interesting phrase "inhabited monument"
which best describes the character of the complex
If Bofill's "Kafka's Castle" is mathematics (the architect implemented the project based on mathematical equations)
It is worth starting to explore it from the plan
the architecture is so complex and monumental that
Only from a bird's eye view does the general idea become clear
the simple forms that captivated the public so much in the XNUMXs had become tired
The fatigue of "functionalism" and the reaction caused by this fatigue also affected architectural circles - the style was so dogmatic that young artists felt tied hand and foot
The first signs of "growth disease" became visible at the International Exhibition of 1937 — new projects began to acquire decorativeness
and a tendency to return to classicism appeared
The Voisin Plan added fuel to the fire - the Parisian elite was so outraged by the idea of demolishing historic quarters and trying to build cruciform towers instead that Le Corbusier and his followers found themselves in opposition to public opinion
The Second World War and the post-war crisis
froze both urban planning projects and architectural conflicts
And only at the beginning of the 60s did the economic boom begin
coinciding with the scientific and technological revolution
The years of the "Fifth Republic" returned the authorities and architects to the need to find a solution to the housing crisis and
led to the idea of large-scale development of the suburbs of Paris
the professional community of French architects had an influence comparable only to that of a major political party
designers often stated the class nature of architecture and the need to eliminate this classism
Decolonization faced the French authorities with the need to resettle thousands of emigrants
they began to build working villages on the outskirts of cities
And despite the fact that low-income families were provided with separate apartments with amenities
the atmosphere of working villages with their rows and squares of identical multi-story boxes was depressing and depressing
it was believed that the fault lay with the features of extremely rational planning
Against the background of the 18-story Palacio
and these are the most comfortable and expensive living spaces of the complex with a view of Paris
even in the budget "Palacio" there are no short films
and some of the apartments are duplexes and even triplexes
The tangled mazes of the Palacio are dangerous even from the point of view of the police
and the whole concept of the building as such
its "antique everydayness" along with bright individuality — all this is a set of signs of postmodern architecture
Bofill alternates monumental concrete volumes with panoramic glazing of the bay windows of the "Theatre"
aerial bridges and stairs turn the building into a puzzle
The construction material itself is also very unusual - concrete of different colors was used to cast the elements of Abraxas
The addition of oxides to the sand-cement mixture gave it ocher-pink and gray-lilac shades
Fragments of facades were cast in parts in factory conditions
after which they were assembled into blocks - at that time this was a revolutionary technology
Bofill did not restrain his imagination and was convinced that he had built a new world for people tired of the functionalism of the modernists
"Grand ensembles" have been built in France before - Marly-le-Grand-Terre
La Grand Bourne - but Bofill believes that blocks of mass housing can look more original
In the descriptions of Bofill Abraxas there is an interesting phrase "inhabited monument"
which best describes the nature of the complex
Abraxas ushered in a "neoclassical" period in Bofill's work that lasted nearly 15 years
Place du Nombre d'Or in Montpellier (1985)
Les Echelles du Baroque in the 14th arrondissement of Paris (1986)
Columns of Saint-Christophe in Sergi-Pontoise (1986)
Pa Soder Crescent in Stockholm (1992) - in these projects
the architect also plays with the shape of the amphitheater or the crescent
Bofill took as a basis the Royal Crescent in the English city of Bath
designed an arc of XNUMX three-story buildings
The concave part of the facade formed a continuous line and was made in a classical style: Ionic columns
Port Juvenal was built according to the same principle
and arches in large-scale spaces has evoked associations with the projects of Albert Speer in some critics
The architect designed social housing that looks like a palace complex — an ensemble of monumental buildings made of cast concrete forms a closed space
Bofill wanted to provide residents with comfortable privacy
seemed to him to be an ideal place for children's games and communication between neighbors
But after the first 10 years of prosperity
Low-income citizens were settled in the multi-apartment "Palacio"
the more prosperous residents of "Theatre" and "Arka" began to regard such a neighborhood as uncomfortable
There was no question of any "shared use" of the space of the inner square
residents literally ran through the narrow passageways-slits
Police said they were unable to control the situation at the Palacio
as its complex spaces with multiple intersections are an ideal environment for criminals and a dangerous place for law enforcement officers
Due to the morphological features of the building
strong drafts travel through its lower galleries-tunnels
which were intended for shops or art workshops
steps — reflects off the broken concrete surfaces with multiple echoes
The gardens that used to decorate the roofs of the buildings have dried up
People complained that they were tired of living surrounded by monstrous structures
whose colossal dimensions are overwhelming
and the general atmosphere resembles a fantastic Gotham City - a city where night always reigns
there was no infrastructure and shops in the complex for one and a half thousand residents
The municipality even raised questions about the demolition of the concrete spike
the old-timers united in the Abraxas Protection Association - ADIHPA
who led the municipality from 1995 to 2015
did not hide his dislike for the monumental structure and did not even try to help in solving social and economic problems
set fire and kept residents of the complex in fear
and they stopped removing garbage from the area
Defenders of Abraxas are convinced that the majestic and strange palace fell into disrepair due to neglect by the authorities
Palacio apartments were allocated to migrants as social housing
We contacted the architect's office and asked him to clarify whether the reconstruction will affect the monument of postmodernism
"it is still too early to talk about anything concrete." However
the architect is unlikely to keep his plans a secret for long
he already admitted that Abraxas was his failure: "When we are young
My model was not taken as an example for building other cities
The period—the late 60s—wasn't conducive to change… In these areas
They hate them… Abraxas is a unique space that suffers from a lack of community spirit… The lack of infrastructure
and the fact that space is self-contained creates problems
this is a unique and complete experience." Arguing that the topic of Abraxas is closed to him
his architectural genius must come to the aid of the guardians of the colossal postmodern monument
the "inhuman" exteriors of Abraxas "lit up" in the movie "The Hunger Games"
This provoked a wave of interest in the complex
Terry Gilliam filmed the dystopia "Brazil" here
"Populated Monument" has become a popular point on tourist routes
the new head of the municipality — Brigitte Marcigny — suggested renovating the dilapidated architectural ensemble
Ricardo Bofill: "We decided to entertain the residents of the sleeping areas
so that they do not become victims of industrialization"
with the Arch building as a focal point in the center of the orchestra's circular lawn
Noisy-le-Grand was visited by Ricardo Bofill himself
who was offered the design of several public and residential buildings near the complex
So far it is known that it is about the urbanization of the area located to the west of Abraxas - towards Paris
The space to the borders of Bray-sur-Marne is planned to be built up with residential and office buildings
According to the authorities of Noisy-le-Grand
this will draw attention to the empty commercial premises on the first floors of the Palacio
Photo: www.ricardobofill.com
/Published in #00 volume Pragmatika
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It was the swaggering black-and-white drama that exposed the cracks in an unequal France
Even the wrong question points to the truth
Paris’s eastern suburb of Noisy-le-Grand began rioting after the death of a 21-year-old French-Arab in a police chase
politicians and the media asked if a film released the previous week
nor the social conditions in “Noisy-la-Haine”
as one newspaper put it – the poverty and boredom that may have led Belkacem Belhabib to steal the motorbike that he fatally crashed into a set of traffic lights
La Haine, which premiered 25 years ago this week, asked the right questions. Its then 27-year-old writer-director Mathieu Kassovitz had been driven to make it by outrage over a similar incident to Belhabib: the accidental shooting of 17-year-old Zairian immigrant Makomé M’Bowole in a police station in April 1993
so I parked and went to join in with the protests
I was so mad at the whole situation,” says Kassovitz today
This was just one of more than 300 recorded bavures (“slip-ups”) committed by French police since 1981
Kassovitz started writing his script the same day as that shooting: 24 hours in the life of a “black-blanc-beur” (black-white-Arab) tricolour of wideboys living on a Paris sink estate
The characters ended up taking the actors’ first names: Vinz (Vincent Cassel)
finds a cop’s Smith & Wesson and vows to take revenge for the latest police beating; Hubert (Koundé)
the ruminative black boxer and small-time dealer who tries to get his friend to drop the bluster; Saïd (Taghmaoui)
Converted to elegiac black-and-white in post-production
quoting brass-balled Hollywood movies such as Taxi Driver and Scarface
it more than matched US counterparts such as Boyz N the Hood
Kassovitz believed in the hip-hop mantra of “edutainment” – where social awareness and style met
Watching the dazzling shot that begins in a DJ’s bedroom
then arcs out over the concrete expanses as he beat-juggles KRS-One
Kassovitz’s film did well around the world
But it was in its home country where its impact was most indelible
The first French banlieue (outer-city) film to receive any serious media attention
it essentially created a new genre in French cinema
and widened the scope of characters represented on screen to the country’s immigrant underclass
something beyond even police violence: the vast gulf of incomprehension between these concrete bastions packed with the neglected immigrant community and white mainstream France; the sense both parties were ignoring a burning fuse
telling themselves as per the film’s famous motto: “Jusqu’ici tout va bien.” (“So far so good … ”)
The outraged reaction to the film showed it had hit home
but the police – believing it to be a polemic against them – turned their backs on the team when providing a ceremonial guard at the festival
In the context of the Noisy-le-Grand riots and that summer’s strikes against prime minister Alain Juppé’s austerity measures
its anti-authoritarian swagger was a red rag
Kassovitz was accused of playing up a bad boy image
He in turn complained about a media unable to connect with the deeper issues
He recalls making journalists from a celebrity magazine cry when he rounded on them for publishing a special booklet on how to speak in banlieue slang
“The media made us stars and didn’t take care of the subject of the film,” he says now
“They asked me questions where I said: ‘Don’t ask me that
go to the projects and talk to the guys there.’ But they didn’t want to talk to them.”
View image in fullscreenMathieu Kassovitz at the 2020 César awards in Paris.Now 52
the director has a feisty reputation in France
spraying copious F-bombs in fluent English in our interview
“I just wanted to make it easy for my father to understand what was going on in the projects,” he says
“He didn’t get why I was hanging out with black guys: ‘You’re a little Jewish guy
what are you doing?’” Dad was the Hungary-born director Peter Kassovitz
his mum the film editor Chantal Rémy; Kassovitz grew up in central Paris
but gravitated towards the banlieue as a teen thanks to his involvement in the city’s nascent B-boy scene
A small network of record shops and parties were a mixing ground for all social classes
including middle-class kids such as Kassovitz and Cassel
whose younger brother Mathias was a founder member of NTM’s rivals
Its director, though, admits La Haine was not solely targeted at the banlieues, but also at a middle-class audience apt to be seduced by its poetic realism: “I wasn’t talking to the guys from the projects – I was talking about the guys from the projects.” He brushes off those cité residents who felt misrepresented by the film’s focus on the seamy side of life there: “Fuck those guys who didn’t like it. It’s a creation, so you have to have a point of view.”
But he has struggled to bring his militant convictions to the screen with the same force
little has changed there in 25 years – and in racist attitudes towards their Arab and black residents
Police “slip-ups” still occur with depressing regularity
most notably in the nationwide 2005 unrest
Kassovitz is scathing about the recent discovery of brutal French policing tactics by the gilet jaunes (yellow vests) – whose base is primarily white and working-class
it’s not ’cos [the banlieue rioters] were black
it’s because they were fighting for something.’ But
it was: ‘You can do that to the black kids
Fuck them!” He concludes: “You know which people aren’t part of the gilets jaunes
undertrained police force often resorts to violence when policing trouble spots; that they are only to blame for their refusal to root out “black sheep” in their own ranks
But he is adamant that his film made it harder for malpractice to go unnoticed
so that when they see a cop in the street [mistreating people]
Aurélie Cardin has one misgiving about La Haine
That determinism is hammered in: you live like this and you’ll always live like this
That revolt wasn’t necessary because we’d lost before we’d begun
We said to ourselves: what are we supposed to do?” She sees more hope in Les Misérables
Maybe it’s also the return of a direct political rallying cry from a genre whose recent advances have been in terms of who is represented on screen
Kassovitz isn’t optimistic about a politician – or a single film – rectifying the underlying social conditions any time soon
“You don’t change society in 25 years,” he says
“You need society to go all the way and collapse
You can’t change a machine that is perfect: capitalism
It’s working.” He plans to turn La Haine into a stage musical
as he puts it; he originally envisioned the film’s little social vignettes as rap songs
and this is the form they will take on stage
But he is still holding firm on not making a true sequel; impossible
as its three heroes are “dead or in prison”
The coronavirus has laid bare once again the social inequality in the banlieues: between 1 March and 20 April
the death rate in the area of Seine-Saint-Denis was up 130% on the same period in 2019
compared to a rise of 27% for France as a whole
Kassovitz sees the pandemic as one last chance to restructure society more fairly
“Either people are going to say: ‘We can’t go back to living like that.’ Or they’re going to go back to that
if they want to go to the slaughterhouse without doing anything.” As in his most celebrated work
La Haine will be rereleased by the BFI later this year
There's a passage in the The Shock of the New when art critic Robert Hughes begins to criticize the grands ensembles
a series of postmodern housing projects that started to spring up around Paris in the 1950s
signified “the new landscape of urban despair—bright
and scarred by the vandalism they invite.”
right around the time these buildings were becoming stigmatized in mainstream culture
Once considered the physical manifestation of modernity
the constructions had begun to fall prey to poverty and crime
2013Photograph by Laurent KronentalFrench photographer Laurent Kronental
strongly believes that the complexes—and their residents
particularly the elderly—are worth celebrating
when he first saw this style of buildings around the La Défense business district
Stunned by the structures' surreal style
he became determined to explore—and photograph—the rest of these estates around Paris
as if their reason for being oscillated between past and present," he told Proof over e-mail
"I became interested in their history
It took Kronental some time to finesse his photographic process
in order to discover and gain access to the housing estates
he had to strengthen his connections with the community
the seniors who lived in these buildings and convince them to participate in the project
“It was a real challenge for me to explain the purpose of my project ..
and to try to create a connection,” he says
“but once [I was able to overcome the] barriers
I noticed how much they needed to share their memories or their feelings
I took a lot of pleasure to create a truthful relationship [with them]."
2015Photograph by Laurent KronentalHe also needed to explore the landscape for several months
as he was shooting with a large-format film camera and was determined "to find special angles and unusual perspectives for [the] shots." Finding the right light was also extremely important
and so he spent many mornings walking around these areas without any camera
as many of the final images were shot around daybreak
2012Photograph by Laurent KronentalOnce Kronental had familiarized himself with the apartments' layouts and gained the trust of the residents
he began to think more deeply about how these structures were catering to their needs
This concern is reflected in the final body of work
which includes a seamless mix of portraits and landscapes
was to emphasize the interaction between the person and his
reads as a thoughtful exploration of the relationship between architecture and man
"It was important that I question myself about the conditions of these [buildings'] existence," Kronental says
"[and] to pour some light on the generation that we forget."
You can see more of Laurent Kronental's photographs on his website here
Jehan Jillani is an associate photo editor at National Geographic. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Watch your inbox over the next few days for photos
captured in mistnet on the outskirts of Wanang village
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starving out especially dense eggs like this (La Jolla
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The silken case itself is visible with the greyish material (a mix of caterpillar saliva and silk)
the first black man to make it to the top of the country and western music field
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The Haenyeo make a living out of harvesting the sea floor catching conch
They freedive to depths of 20 meters and hold their breath for minutes
But the Haenyoe is an endangered 'species'
the sea was abundant with them – around 30.000 of them would take to the sea almost daily
they hardly number 5000 and more than two-thirds are over 60 years old
Here are a few experts love."}],"topicName":"Lifestyle"},"rightpromo":{"id":"2c88edf9-e45c-48a7-a57e-3c8667c53fbc","cmsType":"TileGridModule","tiles":{"id":"drn:src:natgeo:unison::prod:441fde9e-010c-4a0c-a09d-296ee7cb9690","href":"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/lifestyle/article/best-compact-cameras","cmsType":"ArticleNavTile","ratio":"4x3","title":"The 10 best compact cameras for travel
a series of postmodern housing projects that started to spring up around Paris in the 1950s. These structures
signified “the new landscape of urban despair—bright
and scarred by the vandalism they invite.” "},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html1","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Hughes wrote this in 1980
right around the time these buildings were becoming stigmatized in mainstream culture. Once considered the physical manifestation of modernity
the constructions had begun to fall prey to poverty and crime
They remain marginalized today."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-1","cntnt":{"cmsType":"image","ariaLabel":"image","align":"pageWidth","belowParagraph":true,"credit":"Photograph by Laurent Kronental","envNme":"prod","flags":{"hideTitle":true,"hideAssetSource":true},"qryStr":"userab=ng_pw_copy-287*variant_b-1127&forceMode=fitt","mrkup":"","placement":"inline"},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html2","cntnt":{"mrkup":"French photographer Laurent Kronental
however, strongly believes that the complexes—and their residents
particularly the elderly—are worth celebrating."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html3","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Kronental was walking in Courbevoie
when he first saw this style of buildings around the La Défense business district. Stunned by the structures' surreal style
as if their reason for being oscillated between past and present,\" he told Proof over e-mail
\"I became interested in their history
and their place in the society.\" "},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-2","cntnt":{"cmsType":"imagegroup","hasCopyright":true,"id":"inline-2","align":"pageWidth","groupCredit":"Photographs by Laurent Kronental","images":[{"aspectRatio":0.8,"alt":"Denise","caption":"Denise
It is very unlikely that you have personally seen Les Espaces d’Abraxas
a social housing complex of 600 homes built in the style of an ancient city
located in an underprivileged neighborhood of the Seine-Saint-Denis département
you may have seen – without realizing it – its monumental architecture
Comprising three enormous buildings arranged in a circle – the Theater
and the Arch in the center – this structure fascinates the public and attracts French and American directors looking for apocalyptic settings
The site was used as a set in Terry Gilliam’s 1985 cult thriller Brazil
It was also the capital of the dystopian world in Hollywood’s The Hunger Games saga (2014
in which actress Jennifer Lawrence fights against a society organized into a caste system
This screenplay must have delighted Ricardo Bofill
who spent his younger years as a member of the Gauche Divine
a collective of anti-Franco artists and intellectuals championing freedom and democracy
These political affinities saw him kicked out of the Barcelona School of Architecture in 1957 and forced into exile in Geneva
Switzerland gave Ricardo Bofill the chance to perfect his French
His elegant style – spotless shirts and tailored suits – and his stately demeanor formed the sophisticated public image of this Francophile whose influences included the Italian Renaissance
architects François Mansart and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux
Ricardo Bofill devoted his time to creating grandiose housing complexes aimed at low-income communities
Commissioned as part of the “new-cities policy” launched by the French government around Paris in the 1960s
he tried to break away from the monotony of commuter towns and bring life and beauty to these often-neglected neighborhoods
Most of his projects in France were social housing units with very unusual designs
ornamental architecture with white facades
he designed a whole neighborhood spanning more than half a mile
and built staircases in immense columns in a nod to Ancient Greece
He even filled the green spaces with ancient statues
such as a copy of the Winged Victory of Samothrace
In the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines urban area
he drew inspiration from the Château de Chenonceau
and the Roman Aqueduct of Segovia to create Les Arcades du Lac
featuring a waterfront social housing complex in the middle of an artificial lake
His suburban housing works were supposed to be a “Versailles for the people.” However
almost forty years after they were inaugurated
residents of the Les Echelles du Baroque complex
built in a semi-circle behind the Montparnasse train station
The inhabitants of Les Espaces d’Abraxas have also denounced the decrepitude of their building
it has been alternately nicknamed “Alcatraz” and “Gotham City.”
the residents criticize the lack of green spaces and windows overlooking the outdoors
while also complaining about the crime rates in these enormous complexes where even the police are afraid to venture
This failure reveals the limits of utopia; architecture alone cannot right the wrongs of urban policy
the complex in Seine-Saint-Denis has been the focus of a rehabilitation project
started delivering its first units last year
It seems that the architect’s utopian vision is still alive and well
Portfolio published in the March 2022 issue of France-Amérique. Subscribe to the magazine
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Captured at the Double Hélice in Noisy-le-Grand
the brutalism of Paris architecture mirrors the drama and elegance of the fall collections
Casting Director Shaun Beyen (Plus Three Two)
It’s finally time to say goodbye to spaghetti straps and hair-frizzing humidity
and a warm welcome to pumpkin spiced anything-you-can-think-of and thermals
And designers made sure not to leave us with any old knee length parkas this season
Shot by Brigitte Niedermair and styled by V’s Fashion Director Gro Curtis
we see sharp structures paired with Fall/Winter’s even sharper silhouettes
are breathtaking against the grey frigid architecture
“My Inspiration was the merging of the [human] body with architecture
When looking into a pond there was a [striking] reflection of the architecture and this was where I found my [visual inspiration] for the story,” says Neidermair
“I wanted to demonstrate the hidden elegance of these structures.”
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is perhaps the subsequent wave of urbanization that occurred in the 1970s and 80s around Paris
the designs of the new housing developments were characterized by a return to classical forms of architecture and ornamentation
wanting to shy away from the mere “functionality” of Modernism
took advantage of the new urban plans of the 1970s
which provided them with an opportunity to implement their burgeoning ideas
Using the most advanced building techniques at their disposal
they attempted to show that building mass housing at a reasonable cost with unique details could be possible through standardized production
I surmised that taking a day trip to check out these developments would lead me to those buildings where you have the impression that the architect went crazy and nobody told him to stop…I was right
Les Espaces d’Abraxas, was conceived by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill as an inhabited monument in the context of the ville nouvelle of Marne-La-Vallée
The 591-unit complex is made up of three main parts: the Palacio
a 19-story high apartment building; the théatre
a curved section of apartments demarcating a plaza in the center; and the arc in the center
modeled on a triumphal arch containing 20 apartments
in the form of a lawn-covered plaza enclosed by the surrounding buildings
Mastery of concrete structures and of the system of prefabricated facades made it possible to use a comprehensive and highly complex architectural idiom
Although the methodology employed for Les Espaces d’Abraxas is related to previous projects by Bofill
this work is nonetheless the first volumetric exercise in space of such large dimensions
anonymous construction in the suburbs is an example of how the architects managed to embrace different scales of architecture
from the conception of basic volumes of the the complex design of facades and urban furniture
The details in the architecture are neo-classical elements
all as a way to elevate this modern social housing
the surrounding garden and the central artificial lake (derived from the Jardins à la Francaise of the nearby Chateau de Versailles)
he built Le Temple based on the local Greco-Roman legacy (he thought of it as an offshoot of the Parthenon in Athens)
the development forms the “Versailles for the people” contemplated by its creator
By associating historic architectural shapes with cutting-edge construction techniques (prefabricated elements
Bofill was aiming to revolutionize affordable housing
allowing anybody to live in a piece of art
After visiting these locales, you feel completely removed from the Paris the world “thinks” they know. Rather, you’ve glimpsed a sort of future that never happened. It comes as no surprise that film director Terry Gilliams chose Les Espaces d’Abraxas as a backdrop for his famous movie Brazil
One must recognize though that these buildings met their intended goal–making it possible to accommodate many people quickly and at a reasonable cost
But a hardly describable atmosphere of disarray and boredom reigns there
deteriorating prefabricated modules combined with negligent maintenance make the ornamental details look like cheap versions of themselves
these projects are yet another utopian attempt by modern architects to find solutions to economic and social issues through design
producing environments that are all but vibrant
Le Viaduc for example embodies a sort of idealized neighborhood with large green spaces and no cars
but feels deprived of the essential ingredients of urbanity
it would not be fair to leave out the opinions of the residents themselves in this discussion
Noisy-le-Grand municipality contemplated tearing down Les Espaces d’Abraxas
an initiative that was vigorously fought by the community
bad maintenance and the scarcity of nearby shopping options
they paradoxically seem to be attached to their place
these buildings remain food for thought for urban planners and designers
Most well known for mashing up his two home cities, New York and Paris in “What if Manhattan Was Design liked Paris?”
Charles-Antoine Perrault is also a graduate student in urban planning at Columbia University
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Matthieu Elkaim joined Ogilvy Paris as chief creative officer in the fall of 2018
He’s won countless international awards for his work on brands including Volkswagen
We spent two minutes with Elkaim to learn more about his background
and what he’d be doing if he weren’t in advertising
due to a serious eye accident when I was young
My favorite musician today is certainly Moondog
The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory
A commercial for a French TV channel for kids ages 3-6 called Tiji
it was pretty rare to make an animated film for a commercial
The concept was clever and the script very rich
A good friend composed the music; it was the first time he worked for the ad industry
Wanda Production proposed that we collaborate with a young
talented director who had done almost nothing before this film: Yoann Lemoine
The film was a huge success in France and had a beautiful career in the award shows
The good thing with animated movies is they don’t get old
I love this idea because it reflects pretty well how a creative agency can collaborate efficiently with a brand today
I think we really need to find inspiration outside of the advertising world
standup comedy … I try to have a look at all these different disciplines
There is one common point to all these artistic fields: emotion
The most important hook to catch someone’s attention in advertising
Tim Nudd was editor in chief of the Clio Awards and editor of Muse by Clio from 2018 to 2023.
Oiseau Lyre, r2k architect brings the environmental and educational ambitions of the City of Noisy le Grand to realization through the construction and interior design of a positive energy building made of wood. Based on recent cognitive research, it provides a framework for active pedagogies.
© Erieta AttaliIn its spatial proposals, the school's design incorporates the latest know-how of Nordic schools, and those of the Quebec Lab school, models which r2k architects Véronique Klimine (France) and Olavi Koponen (Finland) visited.
The program includes 24 classrooms for kindergarten and elementary students, as well as 8 rooms intended as recreation spaces. Common spaces, including a multipurpose room with direct external access, a motor room, an art gallery, a library, a restaurant, and a sports hall are shared with civic associations when school is out.
© Erieta AttaliAn efficient wooden structure. A renewable resource and carbon sink, wood provides both aesthetic and functional solutions while promoting the integration of a new urban element into the vernacular environment. Each zone has its structural typology, with truss lattices forming sheds, trees columns/ plank round wood, ribbed CLT floors, LVL accessible roof floor coffers, wood frame walls, CLT splits, and wooden beam posts as a primary skeleton.
Multiple factors must be addressed to achieve the result of a building producing more energy than it consumes
The first involves limiting thermal losses
The second requires capturing renewable energies in passive and active ways
which is achieved by integrating photovoltaic panels located on the south side of the sheds
and double-flow ventilation equipment were chosen for their sobriety
making natural ventilation of the classrooms possible
Protective equipment against direct external sunlight is also installed
while internal floor-heating is achieved thanks to a dozen geothermal probes
The leading authority for the Architecture & Design community
Recharge in a Restored Spanish Farmhouse in Menorca
a Parisian gallery specializing in photography and film
> See more from the June 2018 issue of Interior Design
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Paris
we’d wager they hadn’t even considered the heaps of brilliantly out-there brutalist buildings that pepper the skyline in the wider banlieues
The suburbs of Grand Paris brim with madcap concrete structures worthy of any coffee-table architecture book
so we sent out our photographer to take some snaps – here are five of the coolest buildings he found
RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best things to do in Paris
Photograph: Alexandre FaraciTired of seeing his neighbours in south-eastern Ivry-sur-Seine stacked on top of each other like Tetris blocks
architect Jean Renaudie looked to the stars for inspiration
His trademark geometric style is now known the world over
but nothing beats traipsing round these ’70s icons in the flesh
Renaudie himself lived here up until his death in 1981
Photograph: Alexandre FaraciYou may well recognise these towers to the east of Paris
In 2015 they filmed the last scene of the final ‘Hunger Games’ here
had said he wanted the saga’s grand finale to be set somewhere truly apocalyptic
The three enormous blocks were designed by Spaniard Ricardo Bofill
who’s since left his mark all over Paris’s suburbs
Photograph: Alexandre FaraciAnother alluring construction out in Noisy-le-Grand, this multi-storey parking lot is known as the ‘double helix’ for its photo-worthy twists and bends. Like a crash-landed concrete UFO, Ludovic Maillard’s ’70s masterpiece wouldn’t look out-of-place in a sci-fi blockbuster.
Photograph: Alexandre FaraciVariously nicknamed the ‘flower-houses’, the ‘dahlias’ and the ‘corn ears’, Gérard Grandval’s Choux were the object of much derision when they first bloomed to the south-east of the capital in 1969. Thankfully, their balconies, bulbous like curled petals, have since earned some affection – to the degree they’re now a certified national heritage site.
Photograph: Galerie PerrotinFrom Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin to Galerie Daniel Templon
you’re bound to catch something eye-catching (and perhaps even buyable) at these contemporary art galleries in Paris itself
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The collection – entitled Souvenir d’un Futur ('Memory of a Future') – won the photographer the esteemed accolade of Laureate of 'La Bourse du Talent' for Landscape / Architecture 2015.
at the Bibliotheque François-Mitterrand.
now house more memories than occupants.
escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
To bring the Capitol to life in the final installment of The Hunger Games, director Francis Lawrence and production designer Philip Messina knew they needed to up the ante and look beyond Atlanta
where much of the production had previously taken place. They found locations in France and Germany that provided the unique combination of both futuristic and historic backdrops necessary to create the wartime metropolis that serves as the setting for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 2
“We really wanted to capture the feel of being on the ground in the Capitol and we needed the kind of backdrops that lend themselves to pretty epic action scenes,” says the director in the production notes. “Phil and I wanted to keep the idea of the Brutalist/Classical architecture that makes the Capitol so imposing but shooting at real locations allowed us to do that in a more immersive way
Phil found some amazing places in Paris and Berlin that were a phenomenal match with the story,” he says
The French locations include Château de Voisins
which stands in for portions of President Snow’s mansion and a post-modern apartment building in Noisy-Le-Grand
known as ‘L’espace Abraxas’
which serves as a backdrop for Snow’s tidal wave of deadly goo
“Francis and I were drawn to Tempelhof because of the impressive scale of it,” Messina says
“The size of the structure was perfect for many of Mockingjay – Part 2’s most exciting locations including the rebel encampment in District 2
Commander Lyme’s control center and the train station.”
Finding the right locations was essential in order to close out the franchise on an epic scale
says producer Jon Kilik “Shooting the Capitol scenes in Europe allowed us all the size and scale that we envisioned
The team was able to create a look that is both very layered and gigantic.”
Producer Nina Jacobson agrees: “In this final movie
you get the epic scale of Katniss’s return to the streets of the Capitol
Francis has brought to life the Capitol sequences in a way that is truly something
and will be incredibly exciting in the immersive experience of IMAX
It’s everything that you hope to accomplish on a big screen – something that is emotionally and thematically powerful
Keep up with The Credits for the latest in film
Kronental said in an artist’s statement that he is “fascinated by these projects’ ambitious and dated modernistic features” that “are today often stigmatized by the media and marginalized by public opinion.” He hopes that his images provide “sharp contrast with these cliché views” and celebrate the often overlooked “urban veterans who have aged there.”
Punctuated by the occasional human silhouette
the images make the housing projects otherwise look like ghost towns
“Exposing these unsung and underestimated suburban areas is a means to reveal the poetry of aging environments slowly vanishing,” he writes
Kronental’s photos are currently on exhibit at the French National Library until Feb. 7. The full set, including some close-up portraits of the elderly residents, can be viewed on his website
The underground rapid transit lines have been under construction for almost two decades due to various project delays
The cross pinnacle on the Tower of Jesus Christ will be ready to receive visitors in 2026 on the centennial of Gaudi’s death
Now you can get your wine in Talence by paying directly in Bitcoin
That’s because the state has to spend money on updating the railway infrastructure rather than subsidizing the cost of the popular pass
Steffen Romstöck said that he would respect the residents’ choice and would take over the helm of the municipality
which will come into force from 1 January 2025
Rethinking renewable energy sources for the urban landscape
But operating them is still illegal under the country’s legislation
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it has a unique modular design that allows it to be shortened and lengthened like a train
that’s the promise made by the mayor of Paris
the district has long been known as the hangout spot for the artsy crowds
Hostal de Pinós is located in the geographical centre of the autonomous region
the ranking considers several distinct but essential factors
these quiet areas will now be available on all main routes in the country
The academic institution shows a deeper understanding of the well-being of its students
Brigitte MARSIGNY became Mayor of the City of Noisy-le-Grand following partial municipal elections in September 2015
she was elected Regional Councillor of Ile-de-France
She was re-elected Mayor of Noisy-le-Grand after the second round of the municipal elections in June 2020
Brigitte Marsigny has practised for nearly 40 years the profession of lawyer
She was twice elected Bâtonnier of Seine-Saint-Denis (Head of the department's lawyers)
Specialized in real estate law and community law
She was also President of the National Confederation of Lawyers in 1996-1997 and has been President of the Access to Law Commission from 2006 to 2012
Brigitte Marsigny has also contributed to the judicial reform and is deeply devoted to the defence of the legal profession
She became interested in local politics in her town of Noisy-le-Grand in the 2000s
She became involved in municipal and departmental election campaigns and returned to the opposition Municipal Council in 2008
She became head of the main opposition group until her victory in 2015
She is the mother of 3 children as well as a grandmother
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there doesn't seem to be an immediate and self-evident link between architecture - intended as the representation of symbolic
but also forgotten places - and rap or trap music
the classic music videos of this genre were associated with only one type of imaginary
and which therefore focuses on the artists
less than three minutes that alone tell the London suburbs and the faces that populate it) as much as Italian
just think of the partnership between Francesco Lettieri and LIBERATO
LIBERATO - TU T'E SCURDAT' 'E MEDirected by Francesco Lettieri Casa del Portuale
Napoli By Aldo Loris Rossi Casa del Portuale
Napoli By Aldo Loris Rossi LIBERATO - NOVE MAGGIODirected by Francesco LettieriLIBERATO - NOVE MAGGIODirected by Francesco LettieriLIBERATO - NOVE MAGGIODirected by Francesco LettieriComplesso Residenziale Piazza Grande
Napoli By Aldo Loris Rossi Complesso Residenziale Piazza Grande
currently in the impluvium of the Palazzo dell'Arte in Milan
in collaboration with the Tbilisi Biennial.
nss magazine has reached out to Bianca Felicori to better understand what is the new bond that connects architecture and trap imagery.
Rap before and trap today are musical genres (and sub-genres) born as subcultures that today make up a universal language
the twelve-year-old on TikTok as much as the thirty-year-old freelancer who works as an art director
and we feed this economic and social system
All trap artists today have millions of views
I've been listening to rap since I was a teenager and at the time it was quite atypical
a city commonly recognized as the symbol of this culture
Over the years I have learned to combine my education as an architect with collateral passions
I began to investigate the most popular architectures that form the backdrop to the music videos of artists - emerging and non-Italian
Artists who have built an empire without forgetting where they come from
they go up on stage and show you where they have arrived
how much gold they wear around their neck after suffering the condition of isolation of the suburbs and of the province.
Mara Sattei - Nuova Registrazione 402 (prod
tha Supreme)Directed by Enea Colombi Mara Sattei - Nuova Registrazione 402 (prod
tha Supreme)Directed by Enea Colombi Tours Aillaud
France By Emile Aillaud Les Arenes de Picasso
France By Manuel Nunez YanowskyLes Arenes de Picasso
I think this depends a lot on the image that the artists want to give of them and on how the director chooses to represent them
The peripheral context remains a constant leitmotiv even today because these places have always been the symbol of social redemption and the starting point for the rise of an artist
It's an Italian and European cultural appropriation born with hip hop in the USA.
The increase in their importance has also been accompanied by a growing commitment to research in the structuring of videos: storytelling
also and above all in the location scouting
directors have recently entered the architectural debate not only by choosing the suburbs as a context but also by enhancing the design components
Think of the video 9 MAGGIO by Liberato directed by Francesco Lettieri or Fuck Tomorrow (Rkomi x The Night Skinny) by Edoardo Carlo Bolli and Antonio Ragni.
there's another interesting trend to keep an eye on
namely directors who choose less known or even forgotten modern or contemporary architectures as locations
another theme that I have very much at heart
but I hope that in the near future it will be appreciated more and more
in all of his videos architecture plays a fundamental role
I'll just mention the short film of Mentre Nessuno Guarda
shot at Aldo Rossi's Parco Tecnologico in Fondo Toce.
DardustDirected by Theodor GuelatRkomi - Visti Dall'Alto ft
DardustDirected by Theodor GuelatRkomi - Visti Dall'Alto ft
DardustDirected by Theodor GuelatLes Arcades Du Lac-Le Viaduc
France By Ricardo BofillLes Arcades Du Lac-Le Viaduc
France By Ricardo BofillRkomi - Visti Dall'Alto ft
DardustDirected by Theodor GuelatEspaces d’Abraxas
is the desire to go beyond the clichés of Italian music videos to explore new themes
these directors work a lot on disciplinary confluences and this is what leads us to read their works as the result of applying a very specific methodology
we are used to receiving information in bursts every day
We don't even have time to metabolize them as we have already moved on to the next hot thing
Equally the problem with today's music is that you don't even have time to finish listening to a record that three more have come out
The world of music videos is closely related (obviously) to this mechanism and suffers from it in the same way
Directors need to leave something to the user who scrolls their Facebook home or jumps from link to link on Youtube
they work painstakingly on research before shooting
Looking for lesser-known architectures also means this: going beyond the research that others have already done
in addition to giving visibility to buildings often left behind
it allows us to deal with a world that has ideally always been considered far from our discipline.
Mecna - Mentre Nessuno GuardaDirected by Enea Colombi Parco Tecnologico
Michele TadiTedua - Fashion Week Rmx (Prod
SofianeDirected by Federico MerloLe "Lavatrici" di Genova By Aldo Luigi Rizzo
Aldo PinoLe "Lavatrici" di Genova By Aldo Luigi Rizzo
Aldo PinoCalcutta - KiwiDirected by Francesco LettieriCalcutta - KiwiDirected by Francesco LettieriBuzludzha Monument
Bulgaria By Georgi Vladimirov StoilovBuzludzha Monument
but it takes much more to re-evaluate the suburbs
In recent years this passion for brutalism (an abused term) has spread and therefore everything that is exposed concrete is considered interesting also and above all by those who are not in the sector
This love for the "concrete" has also led to the re-evaluation
of the Italian and international popular contexts
So although the average user who watches a video may feel attracted to the peripheral context of Genoa
I'm quite sure that he would not experience the same sensations being on-site
also and above all because very often these buildings have not had the maintenance necessary to keep them alive and therefore they are in a state of decay
I started this research intrigued by the connection between the artists and their neighbourhoods of origin
as I went on I realized that my interest was practically centred only on the work of the directors
it's the natural evolution of a profession towards an upward path
I dream one day of seeing artists working more and more with architects
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all I tend to do is visit the touristic attractions
and then find someone to point me the cheapest local beer
With so many people posting pictures of the Eiffel Tower
I had a feeling like I’ve been there already
I feel as if I’ve been there so often that I didn’t even bother to visit Arc de Triomphe and the famous street
Since no magic or romance appeared on the front
I went to visit some of the “forgotten housing estates” of Paris
I saw an article about French photographer Laurent Kronental’s exhibition that he named “Souvenir d’un Futur”
He photographed the concrete structures and vast open spaces of the futuristic complexes
which were mainly built during the 1970s and 1980s
Kronental also photographed the old people living in these buildings
they seem like they don’t have any grandchildren; like they still eat cans of food produced in the 1970s
I expected them to show up in front of me as I exit the metro
I had to dive deep between houses and housing estates
I felt like I was harassing the whole area just with passing by
a lake showed up with a building like an Austrian opera house
and then a “space ship” in the middle of the water
but I actually learned that it has been entirely inhabited ever since 1981
All I saw to convince me that the apocalypse hadn’t come yet were crows
and a French flag flying in on one of the windows
it gave me hope that is sealed in the concrete
the building would just launch and fly into space where it would breed the human hope
The circle buildings looked like they were not only outside of Paris
Like people lived exclusively in these buildings
I wondered if they have ever but ever bothered to go to Paris and see the Eiffel Tower
They were mainly black people who certainly belong to a low working-class
And the amazing “Les Espaces d’Abraxis” is what Paris had to offer them
Futuristic building to remind them of the future
the third one was something completely different
As I entered the world of Les arènes de Picasso I was joined by three 12-year-old boys
Considering that my French vocabulary contains five words not counting the cursing ones
They seemed like great boys with a good potential of becoming bad guys
where I knew they will be tomorrow and probably after 10 years
They would become the new old people of Kronental
Except the fact that at midnight you don’t go back to Hemingway and Picasso
the 21st century has arrived long time ago and beyond its romantic image in the center
there is a brutalist housing where those “who deserve” live in
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the city itself is already tired of tourists and selfie sticks
If you dive deeper in the city you might find it even more impressive than Van Gogh or Fitzgerald ever did
Tijana Radeska is one of the authors writing for The Vintage News
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