Paris City Council granted final approval to Gustafson Porter + Bowman's landscape design for the Eiffel Tower site. The project is the result of a 2019 international competition that sought to redesign the 2-kilometre axis leading up to the Eiffel Tower, connecting Place du Trocadéro, Palais de Chaillot, Pont d'Iéna, Champ de Mars and the Military Academy. The landscape plan redefines this iconic green space in Paris by increasing green areas by 35% and adding over 200 new trees, in addition to pedestrianizing the Iena bridge.
Marta Minujín, Parthenon of Books, Dokumenta 14, Kassel, Germany, 2017. Image by Anne-Catrin Schultz.. Image Courtesy of Real and Fake in Architecture–Close to the Original, Far from Authenticity?
The term “fake” has been in the media frequently in the early 21st century, referring to headlines and fictional statements that are perceived as real and are influencing public opinion and action. Replacing the historically more common term “propaganda,” fake news aims at misinformation and strives to “damage an agency, entity, or person, and/or gain financially or politically, often using sensationalist, dishonest, or outright fabricated headlines.” Tracing fake news and differentiating “real” information from personal opinions and identifying intentional (or unintentional) deceit can be complicated. It is similarly complex to trace the duality of fake and real in the built world. To explore the larger context of fake statements in architecture and environmental design, a look at the definition of fake and related terms might be necessary.
Gustafson Porter + Bowman have been selected to reimagine the landscape of the Eiffel Tower, seeing off tough competition from three other finalists and 42 entries. Titled OnE, the scheme is founded on a unifying axis: celebrating the Eiffel Tower at the center of a line that connects the Place du Trocadéro, the Palais de Chaillot, the Pont d’Iéna, the Champ de Mars and the Ecole Militaire.
While the Eiffel Tower was negatively received at first for its utilitarian appearance, it soon became a major attraction for Paris, France in the late 19th century. It represented structural ingenuity and innovation and soon became a major feat, rising to 300 meters of7,500 tons of steel and iron. Just three years after its unveiling, London sponsored a competition for its own version of the tower in 1890. The Tower Company, Limited collected 68 designs, all variations of the design of the Eiffel Tower. Proposals were submitted from the United States, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Austria, Turkey and Australia. Many of the designs are bizarre interpretations of utilitarian structures, following the aesthetics of the Eiffel Tower, only bigger and taller.
Join us after the break for more on the story of the Tower of London.
Thanks to their loud, brash, and nocturnal nature, rock concerts are often held in dark bars and nightclubs designed to withstand the abuse of rowdy fans and guitar-smashing rockers. But as musicians earn a following, they eventually graduate from beer-soaked basements to prestigious theaters, outdoor amphitheaters, arenas, and stadiums. For performers and music fans alike, playing or attending a show in a space like Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, Madison Square Garden or Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater can be a momentous, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that ties together the sublime power that great music and architecture can both evoke. As rare as these opportunities are, an exclusive group of iconic musicians have managed to reach an even higher level of prestige by organizing one-off performances amid humanity’s most treasured historical sites—from the Acropolis and ancient Mayan cities to the Colosseum and the Eiffel Tower.
While these special concerts have given fans the chance to experience music history firsthand, many have also been mired in scandal as local officials and residents have raised concerns about potential damage to the sites or inappropriate commercial misuse of treasured cultural landmarks. Despite these legitimate and often justified concerns, these nine iconic sites have hosted some of the most ambitious concerts in the history of popular music:
Amanda Levete is among one of four teams to be shortlisted for a competition to reimagine the visitor experience for the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris. The four teams, chosen from 42 entries, will be tasked with rethinking the ways in which people discover and interact with the tower, working in collaboration with the City of Paris government.
Titled “Discover, Approach, Visit,” the competition site covers 54 hectares of land on both sides of the River Seine, with the Eiffel Tower site located at the center. In preparation for Paris’ hosting of the 2024 Olympic Games, the competition asks teams to spend 10 months exploring how to enhance the visitor experience at the base of the tower, strengthen existing connections across the site, reconfigure public transport routes.
https://www.archdaily.com/893829/shortlist-announced-for-competition-to-redesign-the-eiffel-tower-visitor-experienceNiall Patrick Walsh
Lorenzo Concas, an architect, photographer and light designer based in Florence, creates tiny sketches which are layered with an incredible amount of detail. The width of these drawings only spans the length of a fineliner, yet Concas manages to fit in detailed recreations of elaborate ornament. His drawings accentuate the play of light and dark on these Gothic cathedrals and other famous monuments.
Using fineliners and Copic sketch markers, Concas captures these works of architecture from unique angles, allowing us to see the beauty and potential of these buildings in new ways. From intimate details of the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella to low angles which bring attention to the awe-inspiring height of the Eiffel Tower, these drawings exhibit the power of the sketch and how architecture can come alive through pen and paper.
Fact-checking website Snopes (also known as the internet's first fact-checking website) has now been debunking Urban Legends and setting the record straight when it comes to "questionable" and/or fantastic stories for 23 years. In its two decades of operation, it has amassed not only thousands of well-researched explanations to perplexing myths but has also garnered the praise of news outlets like The New York Times, CNN, and Forbes. So what can Snopes tell us about our dear profession? Get your facts right with our list of dubious (and some not-so-dubious) claims about architecture, buildings, and city design.
https://www.archdaily.com/886227/fact-check-which-of-these-architecture-rumors-are-actually-trueAD Editorial Team
The Eiffel Tower is set to undergo a massive renovation project: a 15-year, €300 Million endeavor that will preserve the attraction for decades to come.
Built 128 years ago as a temporary structure for 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris, the tower has since grown into a global icon, attracting nearly 7 million visitors per year and serving as an important symbol of French unity during times of both celebration and tragedy.
COMPETITION THEME – “[RE]design BIG designs” the goal is to think as the great names of architecture and to re-think BIG icons and monuments on it’s historical and urban context bringing it to our current days. “WHAT IF it was designed BY YOU”?? “How would you do it??” “What would this city be like?” Those are questions that we want participants to answer. The first building to [RE]design is the Eiffel Tower.
Since opening in 1889, over 250 million people have visited the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris. A rare experience for most, a trip to the Eiffel Tower includes long queues, beautiful views, and...a visit to Gustave Eiffel's private apartment? Unbeknownst to most 19th century Parisians (save for a privileged few), the tower's celebrated designer built himself a humble little abode 285 meters (935 feet) up the tower. Closed for decades, in recent years the management of the Eiffel Tower have opened Eiffel's apartment to the public, grand piano and all.
Enter Gustave Eiffel's secret apartment after the break
World Expos have long been important in advancing architectural innovation and discourse. Many of our most beloved monuments were designed and constructed specifically for world’s fairs, only to remain as iconic fixtures in the cities that host them. But what is it about Expos that seem to create such lasting architectural landmarks, and is this still the case today? Throughout history, each new Expo offered architects an opportunity to present radical ideas and use these events as a creative laboratory for testing bold innovations in design and building technology. World’s fairs inevitably encourage competition, with every country striving to put their best foot forward at almost any cost. This carte blanche of sorts allows architects to eschew many of the programmatic constraints of everyday commissions and concentrate on expressing ideas in their purest form. Many masterworks such as Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion (better known as the Barcelona Pavilion) for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition are so wholeheartedly devoted to their conceptual approach that they could only be possible in the context of an Exposition pavilion.
To celebrate the opening of Expo Milano 2015 tomorrow, we’ve rounded up a few of history’s most noteworthy World Expositions to take a closer look at their impact on architectural development.
New research has found that (unsurprisingly) the Eiffel Tower and Burj Khalifa - the world’s tallest building - are among the top three most popular backdrops for “selfies.” The study, conducted by attractiontix, used data from Instagram to come up with the list, of which the Colosseum in Rome and Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia seems to have also secured a top spot.
LEGO® has announced the architecture series’ newest addition: The Eiffel Tower (La tour Eiffel). Named after its engineer, Gustave Eiffel, the famous lattice structure is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world. Built on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France, to serve as the entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair, The Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure in the world until 1930, and remains the tallest structure in Paris. More than 5,000 detailed drawings were required to assemble the 1063-foot tower’s 18,038 iron parts, which took just over two years to complete.
And this week's "punniest" title award goes to Fast Company (there was no contest, really). Beside the pun, of course, the article itself is pretty cool, outlining how Google Street View has followed-up on their latest intrepid capture of the Burj Khalifa with the 1889 classic: the Eiffel Tower. Read the article here and check out the fun video above!
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