Playtime With a Transit Station in Lyons, France
by Tony Chavira
Playtime is this great Jacques Tati film from 1967 where Tati wanted to really have fun and play around with the idea of how modern architecture changes the way people both use and tour through a city, in his case Paris. The film is filled with visual puns and features bumbling characters trying to walk through communities made entirely of glass and steel, struggling to interact with each other, get a hold of each other or conduct business while the architecture enables some of their efforts while disabling some others.
What's sort of interesting to point out now is that the film--which was very much inspired by the great minimalist/modernists architects of the mid-20th century--now presents a view of how the French (and tourists) viewed the incorporation of modernism into their incredibly historic city. In Playtime, all traditional Parisian monuments (if they're ever seen) are reflections through the glass and mirrors of melodramatically modern architectural details to show that though modernism is incorporated into the city, it's distinctly different from the elements of Paris we'd all think of as "traditional."
With that swirling around in your mind, I want to show you something super cool: as the final examination project for a Historic preservation program, the Lyon National School of Architecture graduate Carolyn Garcia developed an interesting concept and explanation for the renovation of the Intermodal Transportation Center in Lyon, France. Here's her statement:
The "Centre d'Echanges de Perrache" is an intermodal transportation center located in the historic center of Lyon, France. It was built in the 1980's by famous architect and urbanist René Gagès. First of all, I asked myself: Is this place part of our heritage? Which parts of it have to be preserved and which parts need to be rethought? By measuring and learning more about this urban machine, I understood that the most ambicious part of Gagès' project is the transportation network he created. This network is still working very efficiently, and my goal is to maintain its efficiency while adding a lot more quality.
I try to make this place more pleasant for the everyday users by opening it to natural light and the city's landscape. A new promenade links the north side and the south side across the old train station. This promenade is a ribbon flying through the air, opening fantastic views on the city and its surrounding landscape. Citizens taking a bus or running after their train become actors of an urban performance for those who are watching from above! This project is about a new way of living in Lyon, as this city is curently building an brand new commercial and residential area on the south side of the train station.
Here's a little before and after for ya. Before (or what it currently looks like):
And here are her proposed changes:
I find two things really interesting about her proposed restoration. First, since the building was developed into the 1980s, many of us would see as the last leg revivalist movement of 1950s modernist architecture instead of first wave modernism, and already she plans to renovate it. Granted, the original structure is very traditionally "1980s," with a combination of heavy brutalist details with flat and clean modern lines that may not be conducive to open, accessible community use. Second, I think that her proposed walkways and changes are really grounded in today's research and trends in urbanism and walkability: developing accessible city space while trying to look "sleek and cool," a part of what makes a lot of places like Dubai so appealing to us. We know from Tati's flick that "modernism" isn't always going to be modern, and we can see from the fact that Garcia is already looking to create a more infusive urban space that historic renovations of spaces that were previously seen as the pinnacle of urbanism are already quickly fading into relics of a past collective assumption about design. And that assumption is that modernist design simple was smart urbanism. Clearly my friends, it's not.
But we all know that it's not true, and that there are a lot of things that make urban spaces work (cool architectural design included). That said, I definitely applaud Garcia's efforts and the efforts of anyone who understands that amazing building designs don't need to lose their original qualities to be accessible and smartly incorporated into a city. Be sure to check out her other work on her site!
