Rethinking the French City: Architecture, Dwelling, and Display After 1968This book considers the post-68 French city as a prism through which to understand the contemporary world and France's specificity within it. The reader is invited to join in a series of exploratory strolls through texts, buildings, and neighborhoods, and thereby share in a process of discovery. Zeroing in on international architectural debates, a range of key Parisian exhibitions, and major urban design decisions in Paris, Montpellier, and Lille, Yaari unravels an often-acerbic French critique of both modern and postmodern positions on culture, technology, and the city. This critique-stemming from the competing claims of national identity, the ethics of architecture and display, and an anthropologically informed revision of prevailing views on the city-has sparked in France a passionate search for a third path, which the author proposes to term apres-moderne. Breaking new ground in the field of French Studies through cultural analysis of the contemporary city, this study brings new insight to scholars and professionals in architecture and urbanism, and will interest all others for whom France and cities in general hold special appeal. Monique Yaari is a specialist of twentieth-century French literary and cultural studies. For the past decade, her research has focused on the contemporary city. The author of Ironie paradoxale et ironie poetique: sur les traces de Gide dans Paludes (Summa Publications, 1988) as well as numerous articles on contemporary French art and architecture, Professor Yaari teaches in the Culture and Civilization option of the Department of French and Francophone Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. |
Contents
3 | |
PART II | 95 |
Montpellier | 101 |
Beaubourg | 191 |
Utopia? | 214 |
Display Wars | 245 |
Soutifs Le temps vite Time quickly | 256 |
and Beyond | 262 |
The Urban Park of La Villette | 319 |
CONCLUSION | 359 |
Notes | 381 |
List of Figures and Credits | 443 |
Works Cited | 449 |
481 | |
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Rethinking the French City: Architecture, Dwelling, and Display after 1968 Monique Yaari Limited preview - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Antigone après-moderne archi architects architecture and urban arrondissement artistic banlieue Barré Bas-Belleville Beaubourg Belleville Bellevilleuse Bernard Tschumi Biennial Bofill brochure building c'est Cahiers CCI's Center Centre Pompidou century Certeau CGP/CCI chapter Cité city's concept contemporary Corbusier création critical cultural culturel d'une debates Développement display dossier espace Euralille European Exhibition catalogue France François French Georges Pompidou global grands projets immatériaux inachevé initial IRCAM issue Jean Jean Nouvel Koolhaas Krier L'Équerre l'esprit L'invention l'urbanité Languedoc-Roussillon Lauxerois Le Corbusier Léon Krier Lille Lyotard métropole metropolis Michel MNAM modern modernist modernité Monde Montpellier Montpellier's Musée museum neighborhood notion Nouvel Parc Paris park Pierre political politique Portzamparc postmodern public space quarter question recherche Région renovation Roland Castro Rue des Cascades social spatial technopole temps tion traditional Traverses Tschumi urban design urbanité utopia Villette visual