Author Description

The intention of this book is to weave together the complex issues and themes - physical and political, visible and invisible - that make up the city of Paris, to reveal how the built environment has evolved. The city is ringed by the peripherique, the eight-lane motorway that runs on the line of the outer city walls. Here at the edge of the city are large projects, stadia, industrial units, shopping centres, caught in the motorway feeder roads. Within the ring are projects of many types: great landmarks, most notably the Grands Projets - Centre Pompidou, the Louvre pyramids, the new and highly controversial National Library, the Grande Arche at La Defense; renovation or destruction of the historic quartiers; housing, often the work of young architects; educational facilities; parks and gardens. This revised and enlarged edition looks at a range of new work and looks beyond the peripherique to the industrial and commercial suburbs where innovative work is now appearing.