巴黎戴高乐机场航站楼丨法国巴黎丨法国建筑师保罗·安德鲁

Diario de Espana: Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport Terminal

So the first part of my holiday to Spain this summer began at the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport design by French Architect

Paul Andreu

. A few things I noticed about the new terminal in Paris was the extensive and beautiful use of concrete. Like Andreu’s other designs, the terminal is sort of eliptical in section and plan, cast in conrete with steel stucture supporting it and an exterior sheating of some sort of steel and glass. What first caught my eye was the way the new airport terminal co-existed with the old one, a very simple response to context by Andreu. The old terminals displayed curvature in their roofs, which curved downwards. And there were several of these ‘curved hubs’ built consecutively. In contrast to this, the new terminal displayed upward curvature in the oppsite axis and instead of having several of these, there was one unified space that on entering proved to be really perspectival.

It was interesting to see how the concrete was used to achieve the curvature. It seemed like the concrete was cast in thin (1.5 – 3 inch) sheets and layered one on top of the other, with each new sheet slightly angled upward to achieve the curvature. Have a look.

Interior_concrete

The use of steel to sheath the concrete relates to the new extention for the Kimbell Art Mueseum being design by Renzo Piano. I feel that be juxtaposing a light, but not soft material with the brutality and force of concrete only emphasizes it. Similary, I feel Piano’s addition in glass, only lauds the existing conrete poetry, which I personally feel was a very interesting design decision. Even the entire fenestration, which is simple orthagonal openings in the conrete and the wooden sheathing as seen in the interior prove to be simple but beautiful methods of letting in natural sunlight and enhancing the space inside.

– anarchytect