Les Halles

The site left unoccupied after the demolition of the Les Halles market, an emblematic work by the architect Baltard in the heart of the Marais, one of Paris’s busiest commercial quarters, became the object of an international competition convened by the President of the French Republic.

The winning project by RBTA structures the existing amorphous space as a rectangular form, which in turn is treated as a grand geometric garden sculpted à la française. The preexistent elements which determine the boundaries of the site are the Bourse du Commerce, Saint Eustache Church and the buildings still extant in the streets Berger, Sauval, Clemence Royer and Coquillière. To complete the frame around this rectangular green space, and to render it harmonious, we suggested a U-shaped construction, circling the perimeter of the streets Rambuteau, Pierre Lescot and Berger.

The vegetation, denser and more luxuriant in the first projects, surrounded a central space, oval in the first plans and in the form of an amphitheatre in the final project. This central space was designed to be multi-purpose: a meeting place par excellence and the natural setting for open-air spectacles. Its dramatic character was in keeping with the best baroque architectural tradition that allowed citizens to be actors and audience at the same time. The scheme presents two central perpendicular axes stretching from one side of the park to the other. The stipulation that the famous trou, a square pit in the south-east corner of the site intended to accommodate the shopping centre, was to be preserved, prevented the development of a transversal axis in the final project.

The outer wall of the garden encloses a geometric forest, resembling an immense vegetative building, whose rows of pillars – the baroque trunks of trees supporting vaulted arcs and lintels of greenery- create paths overhung by branches. It also contains small squares open uniquely to the sky, and small, hidden corners in a labyrinth of multiple pathways.

The inner boundary of the forest is marked by a slender, covered and transparent colonnade which is broken in the middle by a carpet of vegetation that creates a passage and a perspective which corresponds to the second axis of the project.

The space inside this peristyle provides a suitable volume for the various activities.  The roof is an open-air promenade conceived as a kinetic sculpture museum, which looks out towards the urban landscape and in towards the magical central space.

The use of materials, such as stone and brick, which time embellishes, allowed the team to juggle with contrasts and anecdotal constructions producing a concert of rhythms, counterpoints and fugues.

The frame and the backdrop to the perspective along the principal axis are formed by a sculpturally unitary construction with a portico of double height so as to harmonize as the preexisting surroundings, and creating covered streets. Such structure is suitable for both single and multiple functions and for both private and public use.

Monumental stairways give access to a terrace overlooking the garden, the colonnade, the Bourse du Commerce and the distant horizon of Paris.

The Fontaine des Innocents is in the centre of a small, intimate square, which is linked with the porticoes of the rear façade of the Maison des Halles in the Pierre Lescot street, and with the covered street which will be the axis of future constructions.