AD Classics: National Library of France / Dominique Perrault Architecture (2024)

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  • Written by David Langdon

On the banks of the river Seine, just east of the Île de la Cité and downtown Paris, stand the four glittering towers of the National Library of France. Bent around the outskirts of a public esplanade, these towers are Dominique Perrault’s modern take on the age-old Parisian tradition of monumental public architecture. The project is both volume and void, enclosure and exposure, a juxtaposition of contrasting ideas that is as reverent of its place in a thousand-year-old legacy as it is deliberately self-critical.

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The library began as the most ambitious in a long line of architectural undertakings—the Grands Projets—spearheaded by President François Mitterand in the 1980s and early 90s. Alongside the Arab World Institute, the Parc de la Villette, the famously controversial Pyramide at the Louvre, and others, these projects aimed to create a new set of modern monuments for a city long defined by its architecture.[1] In 1989, Mitterand launched a major competition to design the new national library, drawing entries from 244 architects around the world.[2] It was to the great astonishment of most when the young Frenchman, Perrault, won the contest at only thirty-six years of age.

© Davide Galli

Perrault’s design is a provocative play on the traditional role of great public architecture in Paris. It carries a sense of monumentality and visual iconicity that is, of course, familiar to Parisians, but the library is distinctly modern in affect and progressive in ethos. Frivolity and indulgence are spurned in favor of a language of minimalism. Classical arcades, stone carvings, and ornamental expressions of wealth and power are replaced by glass, steel, and weathered wood, the understated and economical palette of the urban masses and a throwback to midcentury ideals. In the interiors, red carpeting, natural woods, and elegant fixtures are stately but tastefully restrained.

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© Davide Galli

For visitors and residents of the 13th Arrondissement, the library is accessible and inclusive, using its massive footprint not to appropriate but to create liberated public space. From the riverside, a dramatic block-long staircase leads visitors from the sidewalk to the public esplanade and elevated walkways that connect the four towers. Between its open design and its educational functions, the library is a programmatic and symbolic monument to socialist ideals, a quality surely not lost on the leftist President who enthusiastically sold the design to the French people.[3]

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At the core of the elevated esplanade is a vast central courtyard. It is hollowed out and filled in by trees, as if the urban environment had itself rotted out and been filled with life. Two hundred and fifty oaks, wild pines, and birches are planted within it, an oasis emerging from the ashes of a derelict industrial site.[4] The message of the design is clear: at the core of the project—and perhaps at the center of human knowledge—is nature, not man and his urbanism. In contrast with other models of Parisian monumental architecture, the building does not work to glorify itself, but rather to play with the drama of emptiness and void.

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The surrounding enclosures, along with the towers themselves, contain a seemingly endless sequence of library facilities. Nearly 3,600 study spaces fill the reading rooms, adjacent to acres of offices, galleries, and conference rooms. With four hundred kilometers of shelves, the library's collection is capable of housing an astounding twenty million volumes, making it the largest book repository in France and among the largest in the world.

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Although they are physically and symbolically displaced from the center of the project, the four corner towers were far from peripheral concerns for the architect. Built using an elaborate double facade, they are visually complex and layered, refracting a prismatic display of natural and artificial light that is both artistic expression and purposeful signage. Perrault describes his inspiration: "A diaphanous light will rise up through the interiors of the glass towers, culminating in four topmost points, which will shimmer like four lighthouse beacons. This liquid light will spread over the square, while the towers will be reflected in the Seine."[5]

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Upon its completion in 1995, the library received a bevy of prestigious international awards, including the European Union's Mies van der Rohe Award in 1996. But its critical reception was decidedly mixed, especially for those who had fought to steer architecture away from the decontextualized languages of post-war modernism that the library seemed to reincarnate. Anthony Vidler in particular cautioned against the urban consequences of Perrault's visions of "asphalt wilderness," arguing that the library "returns us to a contempt for the urban street not voiced with such ferocity since Le Corbusier's fulminations in L'Intransigeant in 1929."[6] Nevertheless, for the young Perrault, Mitterand's ambitious competition was nothing short of the commission of a lifetime, singlehandedly launching Perrault's since-prolific international career.

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Note: Last November, in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the library’s completion, DPA launched a new website documenting the history of the project (available here).

References
[1]
Goldberger, Paul. “In Paris, A Face Lift in Grand Style.” The New York Times. Published 17 May 1987. Accessed 21 April 2015. [access]
[2] Rockwell, John. "French Culture Under Socialism: Egotism or a Sense of History?" Published 24 March 1993. Accessed 24 April 2015. [access]
[3, 4, 5] “French National Library.” Dominique Perrault Architecture. Accessed 21 April 2015. [access]
[6] Vidler, Anthony. "Books in Space: Tradition and Transparency in the Bibliotheque de France." Representations, No. 42, Special Issue: Future Libraries (Spring, 1993), p.116.

Library

Paris, France

  • Architects: Dominique Perrault Architecture

  • Area: 365173
  • Year: 1995
  • Photographs:Davide Galli, Yuri PALMIN

  • Manufacturers: GKD Metal Fabrics, Dow Building Solutions

Cite: David Langdon. "AD Classics: National Library of France / Dominique Perrault Architecture" 12 Jan 2011. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/103592/ad-classics-national-library-of-france-dominique-perrault-2&gt ISSN 0719-8884

AD Classics: National Library of France / Dominique Perrault Architecture (2024)

FAQs

Who designed the National Library of France? ›

French National Library, Paris - Dominique Perrault Architecture | Arquitectura Viva.

What was the architecture in France in the Middle Ages? ›

Medieval. French Gothic architecture is a style of architecture prevalent in France from 1140 until about 1500, which largely divided into four styles, Early Gothic, High Gothic, Rayonnant, Late Gothic or Flamboyant style.

What was the architecture of the French Revolution? ›

What were the types of architecture during 1786-99. The French Revolution had inspired two artistic styles, Rococo and Neo-Classicism. Leading up and following the French revolution. Neo-Classicism was originally called "the Louis XIV style".

What is special about French architecture? ›

It's all about elegance, grandeur, and attention to detail. Take classicism, for example. French architecture draws a lot from ancient Greece and Rome, with its columns, pediments, and symmetrical designs. And let's not forget about the ornate decorations – all those intricate carvings and moldings.

What is the most famous library in France? ›

The Bibliothèque nationale de France (French: [biblijɔtɛk nɑsjɔnal də fʁɑ̃s]; 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as Richelieu and François-Mitterrand. It is the national repository of all that is published in France.

Who built the National Library? ›

The Imperial Library was formed in 1891 by combining a number of Secretariat libraries in Calcutta Amalgamation of CPL and Imperial Library : in 1903 Lord Curzon of Kedeston, the Viceroy of India, Conceived the idea of opening a library of the use of the public.

Who is the father of architecture in France? ›

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 1887 – 27 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier (UK: /lə kɔːrˈbjuːzieɪ/ lə kor-BEW-zee-ay, US: /lə ˌkɔːrbuːˈzjeɪ, -ˈsjeɪ/ lə KOR-boo-ZYAY, -⁠SYAY, French: [lə kɔʁbyzje]), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is ...

What is the oldest architecture in France? ›

Barnenez

What famous style of architecture was born in France? ›

It was the birthplace of the Gothic style, and has important monuments of the French Renaissance, Classical revival, the Flamboyant style of the reign of Napoleon III, the Belle Époque, and the Art Nouveau style.

Why do French houses have steep roofs? ›

The reason for mansard roofs, the steep almost wall like roofs that are very steep at the top is that the French government, during the second empire, did not tax the attic space so any rooms behind slanted walls were not taxed and thus we get the very steep walls and dormers in french architecture in the 1800s into ...

What makes a house French style? ›

Tall, slender windows with decorative shutters, arches, and rounded openings are indicative of the ornate windows and doors favored in French home styles. The Entryway is an important feature. Popular during the Renaissance, Porte cocheres, a type of passageway, allow entry to a courtyard or driveway.

What is the difference between French architecture and English architecture? ›

In a nutshell, French buildings are often bold in shape and colour, but can lack the quality of detailing which is one of the strengths of the British profession. They are also made of lower-grade materials by UK standards. These fundamental differences stem from how our respective industries work.

Who designed the library of Sainte Genevieve? ›

"One of the greatest cultural buildings of the nineteenth century to use iron in a prominent, visible way was unquestionably the Bibliotheque Ste. -Genevieve in Paris, designed by Henri Labrouste and built in 1842-50.

Who established the National Library? ›

At the request of the Nigerian government, the Ford Foundation sent Professor Carl White, former Dean of the School of Library Science, Columbia University, to serve as Library Advisor to the Nigerian government on setting up the National Library of Nigeria.

Who designed James B Hunt library? ›

James B. Hunt Jr. LibraryNC State University, Raleigh, NC

Time magazine called Hunt Library “the library of the future.” Clark Nexsen served as Executive Architect, collaborating fully on the project design and construction with the New York office of Snøhetta serving as Lead Designer.

Who designed the San Juan Capistrano library? ›

One of the most beloved buildings of Michael Graves's early career, the library expresses the historic context of its picturesque surroundings and embodies essential ideas about the library as a building type.

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