This is a psychogeographic novel of Paris self-published in 2017 for the summer elective led by Prof Nasrin Seraji, available at the Department of Architecture library at the University of Hong Kong.
planar axiality and successive historical enclosures of Paris
"Paris is a collective masterpiece, perhaps the greatest in the world [...] it is not a place for individual wonders [...] You and the city, together, have built an event which is neither personal nor impersonal [...] It is a noble way to live, and it makes a noble city."
--- Ian Nairn from Nairn's Paris
Paris is an accumulation of historical layers. The spatial articulation in its urban system has evolved over centuries of development. Architectures are connected by a vast system of streets and open spaces which are considered voids of the city.
This route is an exploration of OPEN SPACE ENCLOSURES --- how different schools of thought have changed the ground condition(s) of the city.
We started from Le Marais, a former marshland where the oldest developments of Paris are, to Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, a contemporary piece of architecture --- from a rather planar to sectional interplay of interior- and exteriority.
the psychographic map of paris
Excerpt from the publication:
