National Library of France
París FR
Dominique Perrault
1996
Type
Library
Tags
cultural facilities, republican monumentality, Grands Projets, 200Best
Visitability
Allowed
Description
The “grands projets” of the President of the Republic that have been completed up to date are all closely associated with a site, and a history -in a word, a place with a name. The National Library of France is built on a stretch of industrial waste land on the banks of the Seine in the East End of Paris. It represents the starting- point for a complete restructuration of this entire sector of the 13th district. The institution encompasses within it an element of grandiosity and an element of generosity. If we refer to the urban history of the great monuments which have been the fundamental signs of the city’s thrust toward new territory, the greatest gift that it is possible to give to Paris consists, today, in offering space, and emptiness - in a word, a place that is open, free, and stirring. Accordingly, the enormous building, which is envisaged with architectural emphasis and contentions by way of back-up, is transformed into a project that involves the void. Proposing as it does to the History of France a focus on immateriality and non-ostentation, this is an absolute luxury in thet city. It is this context which engenders the concept of the project.(Description provided by the architects)