La Villete: Ocio en París.

Located in the XIXe arrondissement of Paris (France), the Parc de la Villette (French Parc de la Villette) is the largest park in the French capital (25 hectares) and the second largest green space in the capital (after Cemetery Père-Lachaise). The architectural realization of the park was made by Bernard Tschumi, in 1982. Ranks of the old slaughterhouse and cattle market in the city.

The park is dotted with a pattern of red buildings called Follies, which put a touch of color to the park and offer many services such as day care, cafeteria, workshops ... The Ourcq channel divides the park in two, and to connect both sides the park, two pedestrian bridges.

Numerous prestigious buildings are in the Parc de la Villette, such as the Zenith Theatre, the Géode or Cité de la musique. The many attractions that have made it a very pleasant place to stroll. It has a varied cultural program throughout the year: exhibitions, theater, concerts, circus, outdoor cinema.

The competition of the Parc de la Villette was held in 1982 and was organized by the French. There were internationally renowned architects like Peter Eisenman. Swiss architect arose because French was seen and felt in some way compromised.He invited architects to design some elements of the park. This green space is included in an improvement plan of Paris led by former French President Mitterrand. Were carried out demolitions of buildings like the old outdated slaughterhouses which retains only the Ox Hall, the building where the animals were sacrificed. The free solar who left these slaughterhouses is where they built the Villette Park, located in the northeast of the center of Paris, bordering with the inner side of the ring road Périphérique. There are separate buildings within the park that are not part of the draft Tschumi.

In the north is the City of Science and Industry, a huge building of High Tech appearance that houses a museum. Next to the entrance is the geode, a spherical shape and construction of reflective glass covering very appealing to visitors. Further south is the Grand Halle, a huge building of metal and glass enclosure, which was the old slaughter of oxen and today is a comprehensive exhibition building. Other buildings located within the park are the Zenith and the City of Music. The latter complex consists of two buildings that share the conservatory, the auditorium and the Music Museum.It was designed by architect Christian de Portzamparc. The Parc de la Villette can be classified into the Late Postmodernism.

Park design

The design of the Parc de la Villette part of artificial water channel called l'Ourcq, which crosses from east to west, so it is also called "east-west". Tschumi used three separate, overlapping geometric systems in the area of ??the park to design. The first is the point system, which consists of a series of foils (small buildings) arranged in a grid of 100 meters square. The orientation of this lattice is given by the channel, which has a straight path.

The second system is linear, composed of straight and curved paths. The "line" of this system is preferably a straight path nearly perpendicular to the channel. The independence of these two systems is reflected in the fact that do not match their geometries to be a small deviation between the direction of that straight and grid points (foils). The third and final system used by Tschumi to design the park surface is composed of grasslands and kindergarten. These three systems that overlap in the park makes it an interesting complexity, especially, have different meanings, something sought by its architect.

The linear system is built around the straight path that is almost perpendicular to the straight channel and another channel that runs parallel to and bordering it. Besides these two paths are curved path to which Tschumi called "kinetic walks." The two have a marquee right ways to protect them from the rain. The structures of the foils and the canopies designed the structural engineer Peter Rice.

The road that runs north to south and is almost perpendicular to the channel has a marquee with a very interesting structure. It triangulated supports in which is secured a large truss style that is oversized High Tech. This in turn secures the roof of the awning by turnbuckles. Said roof has a sinusoidal waveform and is inclined to eject the rainwater. The ranges of the waves with the supports do not coincide, so that geometric structures are two contradictory.

The canopy covering the road parallel to the channel has different characteristics than the previous. The ceiling of this is plain and you can walk on it because, well, have handrails. This elevated walkway communicates with the two bridges spanning the canal as it passes through the park. The roof structure holding this has supports formed by metallic pillars converge at a higher point, forming a cone.The pillars are inclined relative to the ground and hold the awning roof by straps. There folies partially crossing this marquee as are superimposed. Both canopies as foils are a great attraction for children due to their original designs and bold colors.

Tschumi Peter Eisenman invited to design a garden that would be within the Parc de la Villette. He accepted and proposed to contribute to Derrida, a leading thinker of the time. The philosopher also accepted because it claimed to have between philosophy, architecture and many common terms structuralism. Eisenman and Derrida wrote a book of his garden designed, which was not built. This book has ordained that make square holes missing words. Vesnin made in the 1920s, with many drawings straight shapes and colors that closely resemble the Villette.

More information: www.wikipedia.org