|
Architecturally
speaking, the Institut du Monde Arabe is one of our
favorite buildings in Paris, one of our favorite buildings
ever. And it sits right by another old favorite - the great
cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. The smallest of
Mitterand's Grand Projets, and designed by celebrated French
architect Jean Nouvel in the late 80's, the Institut is
worth taking a trip to check out the next time one is in
Paris.
Notre
Dame sits diagonally across from the Institut du Monde
Arabe - the two buildings look at each other across the Seine
in silent architectural dialogue with each other, echoes of the
centuries floating across the water. Notre Dame sits
there with its pointed arches that the crusaders brought back from
the Arab world. One cannot think of the cathedral of Notre
Dame without thinking of Victor Hugo who said in his novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame: "Notre-Dame
is a structure in transition. The Saxon architect was just
finishing the first pillars of the nave, when the pointed arch,
arriving from the Crusades, came and seated itself like a
conqueror upon the broad Romanesque capitals which had been
designed to support only circular arches…."
And
the Institut du Monde Arabe is itself self-consciously
hybrid architecture at its best and the incorporation of Arabic
elements in 20th century architecture has never been done so
boldly or so dramatically. It somehow manages to be both
unabashedly ornamental and yet, always, modern.
Nouvel
aligned the North face of the Institut with the towers of Notre
Dame, acknowledging the building, and on the fritted glass
etched a computer-generated image of the skyline in white
ceramic. However, it is the expanse of wall that faces South
that has become emblematic of the building. It is in essence
an Islamic screen, alluding to the patterned latticework or moucharabieh
found in Moorish balconies. The wall is scientifically
calibrated and the diaphragms of metal work much like a camera
lens to adjust the amount of sunlight let into the building,
casting a beautiful dappled light on the interior by day.
We
think that Victor Hugo, the poet of Paris and its architecture, would have approved.
Visit:
Institut
du Monde Arabe
See:
Cathédrale
Notre Dame de Paris
Tags:
paris
|
