Today, the movement for the Urban Renaissance in Europe has broken ground and the use of imitation to restore, regenerate and design new buildings as if they were organically coherent with the historic urban fabric spreads out from Brussels to London, from Paris to Lisbon, from Stockholm to Palermo. In Italy, after the first urban neighbourhood built in Alessandria (1996-2002), new urban interventions have recently added a new village centre in Bologna Cadriano (2000-07) and a new neighbourhood centre in Bologna, Via della Pietra (2002-08). In both cases with clear references to the architectural traditions of Bologna. In both cases with the aim of achieving continuity and organically restore what was fragmented during the post-World War II age. In Paris, the success of Maurice Culot's ideas is extremely clear in the construction of the new city of Val d'Europe by Disney Resort Paris. Designed to be a 50,000 inhabitants new traditional city 40 km east from the mother one, the new settlement is getting built by adopting Viollet-le-Duc principles of organic imitation. The incredible youth of such a fruitful method of designing has generated hundreds of new urban blocks based on 18th and 19th century Paris. Each urban neighbourhood is specifically designed according to a selected style, representing one of the possible styles for a city that wants to express the peculiar Genius Loci of the Ile-de-France region. It is not by chance that the new urban block on the Municipality square has been recently designed and built by Maurice Culot. From Carcassonne to Val d'Europe imitation has proven to be a fantastic and powerful source for the creation of livable and unique places.
The Eternal Youth of Imitation in Architecture: From Viollet-Le-Duc to Maurice Culot
TAGLIAVENTI, Gabriele
2008
Abstract
Today, the movement for the Urban Renaissance in Europe has broken ground and the use of imitation to restore, regenerate and design new buildings as if they were organically coherent with the historic urban fabric spreads out from Brussels to London, from Paris to Lisbon, from Stockholm to Palermo. In Italy, after the first urban neighbourhood built in Alessandria (1996-2002), new urban interventions have recently added a new village centre in Bologna Cadriano (2000-07) and a new neighbourhood centre in Bologna, Via della Pietra (2002-08). In both cases with clear references to the architectural traditions of Bologna. In both cases with the aim of achieving continuity and organically restore what was fragmented during the post-World War II age. In Paris, the success of Maurice Culot's ideas is extremely clear in the construction of the new city of Val d'Europe by Disney Resort Paris. Designed to be a 50,000 inhabitants new traditional city 40 km east from the mother one, the new settlement is getting built by adopting Viollet-le-Duc principles of organic imitation. The incredible youth of such a fruitful method of designing has generated hundreds of new urban blocks based on 18th and 19th century Paris. Each urban neighbourhood is specifically designed according to a selected style, representing one of the possible styles for a city that wants to express the peculiar Genius Loci of the Ile-de-France region. It is not by chance that the new urban block on the Municipality square has been recently designed and built by Maurice Culot. From Carcassonne to Val d'Europe imitation has proven to be a fantastic and powerful source for the creation of livable and unique places.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
