{"id":1690,"date":"2025-09-24T11:34:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfl.mentalworks.me\/?post_type=article-etude&p=1690"},"modified":"2025-09-24T11:34:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:34:53","slug":"dominique-perrault-rather-than-building-the-city-higher-and-higher-why-not-extend-it-downwards","status":"publish","type":"article-etude","link":"https:\/\/sfl.mentalworks.me\/en\/article-study\/dominique-perrault-rather-than-building-the-city-higher-and-higher-why-not-extend-it-downwards\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominique Perrault: \"Rather than building the city higher and higher, why not extend it further down?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dominique Perrault is the guest of honour at Paris Workplace 2018. <\/strong>Architect<\/strong><\/a>A member of the Institut and awarded the Praemium imperiale in 2015, he has given rise to a wealth of ideas on new urban uses and the challenges of mobility. His work includes the Groundscape concept, which he has applied to the BnF and Seoul Women's University (Ewha). We take a look at the future of the city, with its mix of mixed-use, flexibility, underground spaces and mobility.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photograph by Dominique Perrault<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you see as the three trends in mobility and fluidity that will shape your work as an architect in the years to come?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mobility is obviously a key issue for the future of metropolises, which draw their wealth (and their weakness) from their diversity, their size and their number of inhabitants. Long and repeated journeys, when they are necessary, tire the city as much as the people who live there. Mobility therefore needs to be optimised, by bringing areas closer together by connecting them and improving transport services, while developing new forms of proximity. In other words, connecting the local and the wider metropolitan scale. In my opinion, the key to success for cities in terms of mobility management will be their ability to reach all areas of the metropolis quickly, while avoiding a proliferation of unnecessary journeys. We will no longer have to 'suffer' the metropolis, but find a certain number of services close to home so that we don't have to look for them elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"The ability to quickly reach all areas of the metropolis, while avoiding unnecessary travel, will be (...) the key to the success of cities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This implies thinking about the city differently: a dense but flexible and pleasant city, with multiple mixed-use centres bringing together transport infrastructure, shops, workplaces and even housing. This encourages us to think of the city more in three dimensions: a city made up of mixed, connected and networked urban centres, and new urban planning that infiltrates the ground and is capable of enriching the city beneath its surface... In this respect, the new Grand Paris Express transport network will reveal the geography of Greater Paris, and reduce travel times between areas that are close together but poorly connected. The Olympic Games and the new major facilities will also accelerate this trend and give it a new reality with the creation of numerous urban centres, new neighbourhoods, and therefore new proximities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What were your intentions when you designed the \"Lightwalk\" intermodal hub in Seoul, a transport hub, a shopping centre and a place to linger?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our primary aim was to develop a public space as well as a new underground infrastructure for the city of Seoul, capable of symbolising a more pedestrian-friendly urban renewal. Given its very large dimensions, great attention had to be paid to its integration into its urban context. Spanning 167,000 m2, 800 metres in length and 6 levels, the project connects four new train lines and the extension of two existing metro lines underground, as well as a bus station. But much more than just a transit centre, it will also offer a vast shopping centre, caf\u00e9s and restaurants, workspaces and exhibition venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Exterior view of the \"Lightwalk\" project in Seoul - photo credit: ADAGP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project has a land art feel, in dialogue with the river, the Tancheon stream and the mountains in the background. The search for a balance between city and nature has also guided the project. On the surface, the vast 28,000 m2 public park offers a new breathing space in Seoul, surrounded by a protective double row of trees, a nod to the garden of the Palais Royal in Paris. In the basement, we also sought to combine nature and public space. Natural light will seep into the ground through the optical fault, a long line facetted like a crystal that will create a dispersion of light and amplify its effects towards the lower levels, transforming it into a qualitative living space. Nature will infiltrate through a second park developed underground, which will benefit from the natural light thus optimised and offer a pleasant space for strolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Paris, the entire surface area has been built on and we no longer spread out horizontally. But one area remains underused: the underground. With thousands of square metres available (ghost stations, old underground tracks, etc.)... historically dedicated to mobility\u0301. What can be done with all these spaces?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The need to densify the city in order to limit sprawl is a concern shared by many metropolises. Rather than building the city higher and higher, taking life away from the ground, why not extend it downwards, into the soil? The city's subsoil would make it possible to intensify urban life by increasing proximity and creating land. The underside of our cities abounds in available square metres that are a wonderful material for architects. Lifestyles and ways of getting around are changing, and it's easy to imagine that many basement spaces will no longer be needed. Basements often contain parking spaces, archives and technical rooms that could be converted as uses change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Rather than building the city higher and higher, taking life away from the ground, why not extend it downwards, into the ground?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Interior of the future Villejuif station - photo credit: ADAGP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Villejuif, we are currently developing a metro station designed as an extension of the city: an open architecture, benefiting from air and natural light, a hollowed-out cylinder\u0301 70 m in diameter that will install the station fifty metres below ground. The public space extends into it and integrates various services: shops, hospital extension, direct connections to the park, etc. The main advantage of working underground is not only to propose independent underground architectures, but also to create networks connecting the city above and the city below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your agency is currently working on the renovation of <\/strong>The Louvre Central Post Office<\/strong><\/a>. A project that combines respect for heritage with the transformation of the site into a mixed-use zone. In Paris, architects have to combine the old with the new. What are the challenges in terms of conservation in the Haussmannian style and in Paris itself? How can we preserve this history while opening up spaces?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

All buildings need to be able to evolve, in line with the uses of the time or new needs. Working with Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Lagneau (chief architect of the Monuments Historiques), we sought to reveal the heritage, consolidate and reveal the metal structure made up of elaborate columns and riveted beams typical of Gustave Eiffel's architectural language. The project involved opening up this monumental stone enclosure to the public, and transforming this industrial complex into a mixed urban block. The volume will be more porous, with covered passageways opening onto an open-air courtyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Courtyard of La Poste centrale du Louvre - photo credit: ADAGP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Louvre post office will house postal activities as well as multiple programmes: a cr\u00e8che, a police station, a co-working space for students, 17 social housing units, offices, shops, and a hotel with a panoramic restaurant. The inner courtyard will be home to caf\u00e9s and a flower market. While respecting and enhancing its heritage aspect we thus wanted to adapt this historic architecture emblematic of Paris to the city and to new uses by opening it up to its neighbourhood, day and night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"The project involved opening up this monumental stone enclosure to the public and transforming this industrial complex into a mixed urban block.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Today's new generations negotiate the mix of private and professional life differently, and intermingle the two. Do you take account of this interweaving in your architectural work? How can buildings evolve with this new relationship to work (and private life)?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The relationship with work is more flexible, and professional mobility is a reality. Instead of building \"more\", we may need to occupy \"better\", or at least differently, by creating connected, mixed-use spaces, and developing new ways of living in line with changing lifestyles. For example, we need to increase mobility within homes and workplaces in order to limit energy-guzzling commuting. For example, the housing market will need to be made more fluid through a new range of temporary accommodation, or the flow of residents in and out of the area will need to be decongested by means of specifically metropolitan facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of our thinking on \"Living in Greater Paris\", we experimented with these themes through the \"metropolis hotel\" project. The project opens up the possibilities of a nomadic relationship with home, of a space that is neither private nor public but collective, connected and hybrid, an evolving and less standardised typology that can create proximity in uses and practices. This project is research into possible strategies for metropolitan resilience, just as the \"Groundscape<\/a>. By embedding certain urban functions (data centres, logistics infrastructures, industrial activities) in the ground, this would make it possible to densify the city in depth instead of extending it on the surface, while helping to protect natural spaces. Developing the roots of buildings would also provide a spatial response to changes in lifestyles, production and housing. Building as close as possible to demand to limit the need for transport, and building underground to limit urban sprawl.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":1639,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true},"categorie-article-etude":[9],"class_list":["post-1690","article-etude","type-article-etude","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categorie-article-etude-interview"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfl.mentalworks.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-etude\/1690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfl.mentalworks.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-etude"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfl.mentalworks.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article-etude"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfl.mentalworks.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfl.mentalworks.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"categorie-article-etude","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfl.mentalworks.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categorie-article-etude?post=1690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}