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What sort of legacy has the 1980’s left to Paris and its surrounding area? What happened between the 600 counter proposals offered for Les Halles and the competition for the National Library of France? Starting from post modern controversy to the bicentenary of the French Revolution, what did we do with our city thirty years ago? Opened in December 1988, the Pavillon de l’Arsenal, the first European municipal centre for architecture and urban design is reviewing the decade preceding its creation.
From 1980 to 1989, architecture assumed a new spot in the publicity limelight. The topic of urban policy was qualified in Banlieues 89 initiative, also known as the appeal for the city of Paris, by the group 75021 involved architects as well as politicians and resonates with current issues. The desire to identify a new form of urban policy went hand in hand with the increased use of competitions for the so called “Grands Projets”; the Arab World Institute, La Villette Park, Ache de la Défense, Bastille Opera and the Cite de la Musique.
The promotion of “young architects”, the increased use of models and architectural theories and the development of contrastive Parisian bearings all contributed to a new framework which integrated cooperation and a sustainable city within its considerations. The exhibition design is an unexpected blend between glittery colonnades and deconstructed architecture and submerges its visitors into the heart of this architectural retrospective rich in debates and at the same time marked by a rediscovery of drawings as well as links with new cultural references such as cinema and design.
Visitors progress through the exhibition marked with a selection of ten unique chairs designed by the Néotu gallery, films and accounts of the decade as well as twenty architecture drawings from the Centre Pompidou and the Pavillon de l’Arsenal which reflect the diversity of thought processes and projects of the time. The exhibition reunites the works of more than two hundred architecture, landscape and artistic teams, the writings of numerous critics, researchers and journalists. Architecture 80 is the first retrospective of its kind and is rich with material to help us build the city of the future.