At a press conference held on 4 May 2018 at the City Hall of Paris, the four finalist teams for the Site Tour Eiffel: découvrir, approcher, visiter were announced. In 9 months they will have to rethink the territory of the Trocadero Park and the Champ de Mars - about 54 hectares around the Eiffel Tower, propose an urban development project using an unprecedented large-scale and detailed BIM model created by Autodesk, the world leader in BIM technologies. Autodesk is a competition partner and the only technology developer currently working with the City of Paris on a project to redevelop the area around the Eiffel Tower.
Giant BIM Model
The contestants are just getting started, and the territory model is ready, and today it is the world's largest BIM model of urban space, displaying buildings, roads and infrastructure, pedestrian zones, bridges surrounding green spaces and even outdoor furniture.
It was created using laser remote sensing and aerial photographs with detail from 2 to 5 cm. It includes a detailed image of 8,200 trees, 1,000 buildings, 3 bridges, 25 statues and hundreds of lighting fixtures, benches and park structures. There are more than 10.3 billion points of correspondence alone created during the design; in total, the data takes up 342 GB (!) Of disk space. Teams of competitors will be able to use this, at the moment, definitely unique, software product as the basis for design, the jury for evaluation, the city administration to control the process - in other words, the work is built on a functional basis of a completely different level than usual.
Moreover, the surrounding quarters of urban development are also roughly considered: on the left bank, about half of the districts of Grenelle and Gros-Caillou, on the right, a significant part of the houses around Chaillot - they make up a broad view of the city, a little less detailed, but allowing to analyze the urban context and connections closest neighbors: in total, a fragment of the city with an area of 240 hectares, 1.6 km wide and 2.2 km long was considered.
If 240 hectares of cities are drawn in 3D, then the actual territory of the competition - 54 hectares, including the Trocadero park, the Champ de Mars and the Seine embankments between the bridges Pont de Alma and Bir Hakim - was built in much more detail, a full-fledged BIM model was made for it. the technical basis for the work of the mayor's office and the contestants.
During the competition project, teams will be provided with a version of the 3D model in Autodesk InfraWorks for use at various stages of the competition. Autodesk will also work with the teams to help them develop and render their designs. The model developed by Autodesk will also be used by the final jury to better understand and evaluate the finalists' proposals.
Karin Weiss, the company's employee responsible for urban infrastructure solutions, explained that "open formats for BIM design allow participants to use not only Autodesk software, but also other programs."
“If the design of the Eiffel Tower is known to the whole world, the experience of visiting and receiving it is difficult to understand. The model, created by Autodesk, allows us to take into account this important aspect of competitive dialogue and select the best proposal of candidates, - said Deputy Mayor of Paris Jean-François Martins, who is in charge of all matters related to sports, tourism and the future Olympic and Paralympic Games 2024. "Unleashing the tower's perception potential is a major challenge for teams."
According to Nicolas Mangon, vice president of AEC (Architecture, Construction and Infrastructure) at Autodesk, this project “will, among other things, show the world how new technologies are changing the architecture and construction sector and convince everyone of the power of BIM design. allowing to implement such projects”.
The model is designed to make the study of the territory as deep and comprehensive as possible, to avoid the "cosmetic effect" often inherent in landscaping projects. The goal is to rethink and transform, not just beautify, the organizers of the competition emphasize.
Location: why update
The Tower of Engineer Gustave Eiffel is the most visited paid attraction in the world: 6 million people climb it a year, and in 2014 there were 7 million. And also the most photographed. The area around, from where the tower can be seen and photographed, then boasting to friends that “I was in Paris and saw everything” - five times more people, about 30 million visit each year. This area is the Trocadero square and the Champ de Mars, strung on one axis, on which also has an arch of widely spaced tower supports, from the end of the 19th century served for world exhibitions, for one of which, in 1889, as you know, Eiffel built his La tour de 300 meters, a three-hundred-meter tower, as the engineer simply called it. The French are now often called the "Iron Lady" - La Dame de fer. Recently, the first tier of the tower is seriously
reconstructed, but in September 2017 another modernization started: glass walls will now appear from the north and south. Further, a large-scale renovation of the tower is planned: the society for its use (there is one!) Attracted 300 million euros in investments calculated for 15 years and designed to improve its accessibility, safety and beauty.
The area around is now attracting less attention, and although both parks, on the left bank of the Seine and on the right, are not so bad, in any case, the giant grassy lawn of the Champ de Mars offers picnics, and buses with tourists drive up uninterruptedly to Trocadero for the sake of a viewing platform between the wings of the Chaillot Palace, built for the 1937 exhibition (the same one where the Worker and the Kolkhoz Woman confronted the eagle of Nazi Germany) - in an urban sense, they are not very attractive and do not meet today's standards.
view from the platform in front of the Palais de Chaillot, the beginning of the path to the tower:
The main problem is created by the lack of infrastructure: shelters from the rain, toilets (calculated: only 3 pieces per 800 people per hour), commercial services and poor navigation along the route. The Champ de Mars, the front parade ground of Louis XV, is still more conducive to marches - in the central part it is large, completely open to the sun and rain, once on it, you immediately understand how tired your legs are, and there is still a long way to go to the nearest cafe. The trees around the edges, of course, save you from the summer sun, but they do not save you from the rain … In a word, you can stay on the field of the former world fair for a long time only by spreading out a picnic mat, but the lawns are sometimes fenced in so that the grass grows, then they are completely trampled.
Field of Maros in 2009:
Champ de Mars in 2016:
In a word, despite the fact that the trees are neatly trimmed and there are quite a lot of classic Parisian-style benches here, spending time on the Champ de Mars can hardly be called an effective use of public space in the city center: there are not many people here, and they do not linger - they took a selfie and left somewhere to the Latin Quarter, attracted by the indescribable smell of lobster and mussels from restaurants.
On the other hand, from the relatively small viewpoint of the Trocadero with its majestic view of the front esplanade and the fountain of the same name, in order to get to the tower and complete the obligatory tourist program, you need to go down the hill by flights of stairs, bypassing the platform in front of the theater with a restaurant built into the hill. walk past the fountain, cross the busy highway and the Jena Bridge.
viewpoint Trocadero:
the route above the tunnel and the pedestrian crossing in front of the Jena Bridge:
In a word, for tourists there is still a mandatory, leg-troubling program, tuned to overcome difficulties rather than ease of being. The paths are confusing, and even the queues are poorly organized (and they are). The Parisians do not like the place either: it is too spacious, there is not much to do, and it is far to walk. Meanwhile, there are many interesting things in the parks and in the vicinity: if you think over the routes, the parks-squares could heal a new "urban" life. The task of the contestants is to make the territory more connected, to improve pedestrian paths by connecting them with public transport, to improve orientation in space, and, in addition, to reveal the cultural potential of the place, that is, to help visitors see something else besides the tower. "The king is made by the suite" - the main attraction needs a decent environment. If we talk about the “small” economy, so many people come here that if they stayed longer in a pleasant environment, shops and cafes would make a profit, which is also harmless to the city and can increase the “return on space”.
“The goal of the project is not to increase the number of visitors to the most famous monument in Paris, it is physically impossible,” says Jean-Louis Missica, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of urbanism and architecture, the Greater Paris project, as well as the economic development of the city in general. … “Its goal is to make the tour of the tower more enjoyable and convenient for tourists, as well as to extend the time spent on site.”
A factor that complicates the work of designers a lot is the embankment from the Bir-Akem bridge, the Trocadero garden and palace, the Eiffel Tower, the Champ de Mars and the Military School behind it are included in the UNESCO list, and therefore, any capital construction is prohibited here, and the project itself is called - restoration of the territory … “We are not looking for an architectural gesture,” says Jean-Louis Missica, “it should be an urban response, rethinking the landscape and managing the flow of visitors. We should not forget the residents of the city, who are also users of the place”. Missika also noted the importance of different levels of perception and spatial experience - seeing the tower from the city and the city from the tower.
Finalist consortia
For the tender announced on February 16, 42 applications were submitted. One of the main requirements for applicants is a multidisciplinary team, which should include urbanists and landscape architects, who will have to balance the use of public space in the interests of pedestrians and optimize traffic management, taking into account security issues, especially important for Paris, which has been repeatedly subjected to terrorist attacks.
When choosing future designers, the experience of the teams in working on similar projects was taken into account - only 9 months were released for the development of the concept, and in the spring of 2019 the proposals should be considered by the jury.
At a press conference on May 4, the main rivals were announced - four multidisciplinary teams, each of which includes several companies responsible for different areas of urban planning: architecture, landscape and engineering.
Amanda Levete Architects
Expansion
the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, London, the Lisbon Museum of Art and Architecture (MAAT) - these grandiose objects, designed by the British bureau over the past two years, have become notable events in the architectural world.
The ALA-led consortium also includes:
- Bonnier et Glachant, architectes
- Urbaniste ricky burdett
- Agence de BET "Quartorze"
- Terell
- Egis
- VPEAS
- Systematica
- Cronos conseil
- Attitudes Urbaines
- Gross max
Gustafson Porter + Bowman
They are known for their delicate handling of the landscape: one of the recent works of the bureau was the reconstruction of the park around the Crystal Palace, a monument of landscape architecture. And although the office itself is located in London, the consortium can be called French rather than British: one of the partners, Catherine Gustafson, a graduate of the landscape school of Versailles, brought in experienced French architects and urban planners to the team. The team included:
- Chartier et Corbasson, architectes
- Atelier Monchecourt & co, architectes
- Sathy
- Agence Devillers & associés, urbaniste
- Ma-geo morel
- VPEAS
- BIM Services
- Inex
- Bollinger et Grohmann
- Geovolys et Yris
Ter
The geography of the work of the French landscape agency goes far beyond the borders of the country. Besides the Boulogne-Billancourt park project, they are known for the development of the Pershing Square in Los Angeles and the Plaza de las Hailor Catalanes in Barcelona. The team consists of French and Italian architects, with a focus on sustainable development. It also included Carlo Ratti, a frequent guest in Moscow. Other contributors:
- Exploration architecture
- Arcadis
- Berim
- Cronos Conseil et Alphaville
KOZ Architectes
The fourth team is headed by a little-known studio with relatively small projects, in particular, social housing, it is based in Paris and operates within France. It is curious that Junya Ishigami joined the consortium, whose friendly approach to the existing environment and the search for flexible scenarios of interaction with it made him a world celebrity. Other members of the consortium:
- Niclas Dünnebacke, architecte
- Atelier Roberta, paysagiste
- Strate
- Indiggo
- Axio
- Elioth
After the announcement of the winning concept, the development of its economic model will take another year, and the actual implementation of the project, the total cost of which is 40 million euros, allocated from the city budget, is planned for two years.
