“Architecture is an activity inventing concepts materializing them with void as well as with fullness” claimed the architect at a recent conference “When architects are not scared of the void”. Right from his first project when he won the international competition for the Parc de la Villette in Paris, Bernard Tschumi commits himself to innovate and to implement his precepts. Up to then, close to the philosopher Jacques Derrida, he preferred theory to construction sites. “One must make the difference between an architect and a theoretician of architecture” he told the daily Le Monde. The former tries to apply some knowledge to the reality, whilst the latter wants to extend this field of knowledge without necessarily wanting to implement it. In 1969, after obtaining his degree in architecture (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) he straightaway chose teaching. From 1970 to 1981, he also went to the Architectural Association (London), the Princeton University and the Cooper Union (New York). His first major theoretical essay “The Manhattan Transcripts” protests against the classic ideals. It means to invent new relations where the traditional elements of architecture are broken and rebuilt according to other axes Coming back to La Villette, its conception results from a pure abstraction work. The architect imagines the vast 50 hectares park as a grid punctuated at its intersections by twenty five red red enameled steel “folies” that support different activities (information centre, bandstands, restaurants, etc,) made accessible thanks to a long sinuous path. “It’s the town’s continuity”, he added. Architecture finds fulfilment in the landscape. Facing the challenge of a space opened to everyone, he opts for high-tech and modernity. The park can therefore be considered as the greatest building ever built in the world.

Bernard Tschumi has really become a star on the cultural scene. He draws the African Art Museum in New York, the Modern Art Museum in Sao Paulo and more recently the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Built on stilts this museum floats on the archaeological site. “The spatial narration combines the linear movement with the story of art and history, adds the architect. The movement in and through time, always a crucial dimension of architecture, is an important aspect especially for this museum. The movement sequence through out the museum’s works is designed to receive the greatest light.”

In another field, the architect draws the Diaoyutai Tower in Beijing, immediately recognizable by its prow and its perforated metal skin or the Blue Tower in New York, with a magnificent view on Lower Manhattan. Its simple and slender shape masks the complexity of the urban regulations in this zone. “No pole of an apartment building being allowed to lean on a commercial plot, the cantilever authorizes to build a maximum of square meters above the commercial plot. The cantilevered part on the southern part will profit from a sloping façade, allowing to increase the surface of the most luxurious flats on the top floors.” From now on, leading about thirty assistants in his Paris and New York offices, Bernard Tschumi stays faithful to his line of conduct. This scholarly theoretician sees architecture, today as yesterday, as an invisible intellectual system in the final product, unless you know how to analyse with precision the approach followed and undo everything in the conceptual development.

www.tschumi.com

*Paris, City of Architecture and Heritage

1 Bernard Tschumi
© picture Martin Mai

2 Parc de la Villette, Paris (1982-1998)
© picture Peter Mauss/Esto

3 Le Fresnoy, the National Contemporary Arts Studio, Tourcoing (1991-1997)
© picture Robert Cesar

4 Rouen Concert Hall and Exhibition Complex (1998-2001)
© picture Peter Mauss/Esto

5 Acropolis Museum, Athens (2001-2009)
© picture Bernard Tschumi Architects

6 Blue residential tower, New York (2004-2006)
© picture Peter Mauss/Esto

7 SNCF bridge, La Roche-sur-Yon (2008-2010)
© picture Christian Richters

8 Alésia Museum and Archaeological Park (2003-2012)
© picture Bernard Tschumi Architects

1. Bernard Tschumi

2. Parc de la Villette, Paris

3. Le Fresnoy, the National Contemporary Arts Studio, Tourcoing

3b. Le Fresnoy, the National Contemporary Arts Studio, Tourcoing

4. Rouen Concert Hall and Exhibition Complex

4b. Rouen Concert Hall and Exhibition Complex

5. Acropolis Museum, Athens

5b. Acropolis Museum, Athens

6. Blue residential tower, New York

7. SNCF bridge, La Roche-sur-Yon

7b. SNCF bridge, La Roche-sur-Yon

8. Alésia Museum and Archaeological Park