A New Paris
This is an article I talk about a lot. It is an article from The New York Times I read a while back, I think in March of this year, about an architecture/urban planning competition that France’s President Nicholas Sarkozy proposed for transforming Paris into the first “post-Kyoto” city. Paris is the city of love and light, a place I have only been to once, and a city whose landmarks and their histories give it its strong identity as much as the people inhabiting it. This contest had 10 finalists, the most provocative and “outlandish” proposal was to move all of the existing monuments and landmarks of Paris to outlying, gritty neighborhoods. I enjoy this image, this gesture, this thought and the boldness to pursue writing and planning such an act. The architect is Paris-based Roland Castro. I think Implied Violence will help Mr. Castro with our fleet of Zeppelins: we will simultaneously black out the sun over Paris while moving all of the monuments in the city while darkness overtakes the city of light. And when IV’s fleet of Zeppelins moves on to the next city: Cairo, London, St. Petersberg, Tokyo, and so forth…Paris’ rioting masses will calm and draw new maps. Cartographical Catastrophy.
Above is the link to the article about said competition. It is definitely worth a look-see!
Tags: Architecture, blacking out the sun, Paris, Roland Castro