Les Échelles du Baroque is a residential building complex of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Overview

The project completed in 1985 by the international team

Ricardo Bofill Ricardo Bofill Leví (; 5 December 1939 – 14 January 2022) was a Spanish architect from Catalonia. He founded Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura in 1963 and developed it into a leading international architectural and urban design practice. ...

Taller de Arquitectura was part of a renovation program in Paris 14th arrondissement, near

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing suc ...

. Within this sensitive context the respect to the configuration of the existing urban tissue demanded a specific architectonic vocabulary. By applying the essence of

baroque architecture Baroque architecture is a highly decorative and theatrical style which appeared in Italy in the early 17th century and gradually spread across Europe. It was originally introduced by the Catholic Church, particularly by the Jesuits, as a means t ...

the façade is not a mere wall, it breaks the established rigidity imposed by the

industrial building Industrial architecture is the design and construction of buildings serving industry. Such buildings rose in importance with the Industrial Revolution, starting in Britain, and were some of the pioneering structures of modern architecture. File:R ...

system and becomes a décor for the city. In designing the buildings the team confronted two imperatives: to respect the urban Book: "Emerging concepts in urban space design" written by Geoffrey Broadbent
/ref> context and to obtain a formal relationship with the interior spaces of the project. Les Échelles du Baroque consists of a building apartment surrounding a circular

plaza A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

which, by its axial condition, encloses the project perspectives; behind this space, two clearly differentiated apartment blocks define two additional plazas: one elliptical and the other

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

-shaped. The façades facing the

elliptical Elliptical may mean: * having the shape of an ellipse, or more broadly, any oval shape ** in botany, having an elliptic leaf shape ** of aircraft wings, having an elliptical planform * characterised by ellipsis (the omission of words), or by conc ...

plaza define an elliptical space as the

Italian baroque Italian Baroque (or ''Barocco'') is a stylistic period in Italian history and art that spanned from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. History The early 17th century marked a time of change for those of the Roman Catholic religion ...

plazas. For these façades the architectural team used a curtain wall with glass columns that add rhythm to the design and become the bow-windows of the apartments. The three buildings contain 274

apartments An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are man ...

over seven floors with a basement level for car park (300 cars). The ground floor contains apartments, shops, offices and workshops. The

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

of the apartments is based on the combination of modules in plan. The basic apartment module is 65 sqm (3 bedroom apartment unit).

Notes

External links

Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura official website

More Photos of www.scholarsresource.com

Moma's Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Echelles du Baroque, Le 1985 establishments in France Ricardo Bofill buildings Baroque architecture in France Buildings and structures in Paris Buildings and structures in the 14th arrondissement of Paris Architecture in France

Overview

See also

Notes

External links