Reading 1: Bernard Tschumi and La Villette

This reading is all about Tschumi and how he turned a run down, unappealing site into a thriving park which attracts people for a whole range of activities. In his designs for La Villette he inserted 26 folies all throughout the space to add interest and allow a number of various activities to occur on or within them. The folies consisted of red cubes, which depending on their individual sites and how each one was assembled changed how the spaces around them were used, while some where lookouts, others offered stage spaces for performances, and others a place of rest while strolling through the gardens. It is said that the folies appeared as 'punctuation, animation and action' within the space. Tschumi also mentioned that he thought of his folies as 'activators of space'. When I design my folie I will try and design with this in mind as my philosophy and use my folie to activate the space. I also found it inspirational how something as simple as a cube could assembled in various different positions to allow a myriad of activities to occur within the spaces. I also enjoy the simple and almost minimalistic look to the folies.

Bure,G. 2008. Paris/La Villette. In. Bernard Tschumi. ed. G.Bure, 47-73. Birkhauser:Basel.