Thoughts on Paris
Since there wasn’t much information on historical significance of La Defense, I decided to research a bit on my own. Considered one of the most important financial districts in the world (as it is the business centre of Paris), La Defense was specifically planned to accommodate tall skyscrapers. Though limited at a cap of 100 meters and hit by the impact of economic recession in 90s, the district experienced a revival in the new millennium. Now, housing major business corporations, it is rightfully dubbed as the largest purpose-built business district in Europe.
A distinct feature of this project is the fact that the location of the site was a new one. This is similar to my megaproject as even Navi Mumbai’s site was chosen as the aim was to accommodate residents and business districts without creating the smallest effect on the existing community. Another feature was creating an all-powerful governmental body (in this case, Établissement Public l’Aménagement de La Défense), which would be responsible for land acquisition, development of public facilities, promotion of the megaproject. This feature has been adopted by several countries around the world such as India (Navi Mumbai) and China.
Built at the height of Modernism, the Center of New Industries and Technologies, not only served as a symbol of the new modern Paris, the French government was looking for but also was much appreciate among architecture circles for its use of reinforced concrete in an innovative double shelled design with internal ribs. We can also see that specific features such as ring road/boulevard/motorway/other extension of horizontal axis which would be built in the centre of business district get repeated in all the megaprojects we have studied so far.
Each megaproject would require a symbol; a piece of architecture which would make it stand apart from the rest. For La Defense, it is 110m tall Grande Arche. Modernization of old buildings is a phase which I believe should be implemented in other megaprojects we studied in class (Barcelona). Though there have claims of sustainability as a major part of their vision for La Defense in the future, I didn’t come across anything significant. Yet, the infrastructure principles which have been used for the development of La Defense are a must for any aspiring urban planner and have to be integrated into other megaprojects.
