Grande Arche in Paris

Grande Arche also known as Grande Arche de la Fraternite is one of the famous monument in the district of Ladefense, the europe’s largest district for business which is to the west of Paris. It is also known as Archede la Defense or La grande Arche. French president Francois Mitterand launched an international design competition named ‘purity and strength’. Johann Otto Von Spreckelson, a Danish architect designed this entry. The construction was started in 1982.

Beyond the city limits Grande Arche extends from the Champs- Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. This grand project by Mitterand , the French president was a 15 billion franc program. This triumphal arch is a 35 story office building. The area around La defense has office towers with 14 of France’s top 20 corporations.

Von Spreckelson died in 1987 before the completion of this project and was said that he was displeased with his own design. After his death, French architect Paul Andrew, Von’s associate completed the work in 1989/90.

Arch is 110m long on each side, 108m wide and 112m depth. It has 95,000 square meters of office space. The most surprising aspect of this scheme is its asymmetry. From the center of axis it is rotated six degrees. Actually this rotation was not a part of the original design, but it was done so that the tunnel networks under the site could be avoided by the piles which were supporting the structure. It almost looks like a four dimensional hypercube. The architect wanted to emphasize the depth of the monument and this 6.33 degree specific angle was chosen to create symmetry with Louvre at the other end of the axe.

The Grande Arche is covered by Carrara marbles from Italy and was built by Bouygues, a French civil engineering company. The completed arch was inaugurated in July 1989 with grand military parades. The Louvre is one of the oldest museum in France, Paris. It is one of the largest and most famous art galleries in the world. But it is said that the reason behind angle specification is only technical.

A metro station, an RER station and a motorway is all situated directly underneath the Arche and so this specific angulations was the only way to support the structure’s giant foundations. Addionally the Arche was placed so that it could form a secondary axis with the Tour Eiffel, Tour Montparnasse, the two highest buildings from Paris. There is an exhibition center in the roof section. Visitors could visit this place taking a metro or RER ‘A’ to the station Grande Arche de Ladefense.

French urban climber Alian Robert in 1999, scaled the exterior wall of this structure with only is bare hands and feet with no safety devices of any kind. The Grande Arche is white in colour with prestressed concrete frame covered with glass. There are hundreds of snack bars, wine bars, restaurants, cafes and burger places.