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Collecting bulky series of paper materials happens very often in an institution as large as the Archives de Paris. Questions arise of how to give access to those materials and how to produce finding aids well suited to their many diverse uses. The numerous specific application programs that are used by the offices of origin of the archives can provide precious metadata for the archivist. Using the EAD DTD in order to preserve and recycle that information can be one way to solve a double problem: the description of modern serial paper-based public records and the enhancement of value for a certain type of electronic record. The use of the EAD DTD presented in this paper is a bit unusual in some ways. It reveals the DTD's capabilities as an archival interpretative tool for information created by different professional communities as well as its limitations as a tool for exchange of structured data. (Contains 6 notes.)

From preservation of historical monuments to repair of existing buildings, architectural heritage seems to be a market with a future for France's building industry. The public's enthusiasm, along with greater appreciation of the "value" of cultural goods and their integration into a framework of economic development offer a favorable context for rapid expansion of the architectural heritage market. Despite this fact, architectural heritage has yet to become the focus of strategies permitting elaboration of a real supply policy. The designation "heritage architect" currently covers the following professional groups: (1) "head architects for historical monuments" (the elite body of architects entrusted with rehabilitation of France's historical monuments); (2) architects working solely in private agencies; and (3) civil servants with project management responsibilities limited to the historical monuments' upkeep. These different players are too dispersed to formulate an economic response to the increasing demand for their services. Exchanges among the three groups about historical approaches must be encouraged, the competencies needed for the field must be better identified, and the training needed to develop the specialized skills required for historical preservation must be developed and provided. Companies and training bodies have important roles to play in building and structuring the architectural heritage market and in providing the training required to develop a qualified workforce. (MN)

Throughout history, tools for engineering in the building industry have evolved. Due to the arrival of Industry 4.0, Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) software have replaced the usage of pens, pencils, and paper in the design process. This paper describes the work required to design a large-scale immersive visit of a district under construction in a suburban area of Greater Paris, France. As part of this real estate project, called LaVallée, we have access to its city information model: all the BIMs of the works to be carried out including roads, terrain, street furniture, fountains, and landscaping. This paper describes all the technical operations necessary for the design of an immersive 3D model with a high level of detail of the neighborhood with its surroundings. The objective of this technical report was to provide practitioners with feedback on such an achievement based on industrial-level data. The development of the city model begins with the registration of all the BIMs from different firms in a common Geographic Information System: this gives the opportunity to confront the operational requirement of a construction phase and the actual current practice of architecture firms. A first prototype was developed using the archviz tool TwinMotion. In order to increase the realism of the model, we describe the creation of a pipeline in Unreal Engine with the automated tasks of material and mesh replacement and the lighting and landscape configuration. The main contribution of this work is to give relevant experience on building such a large-scale model, with the Python script when possible, as well as the necessary manual steps. It is a valuable contribution to the making of large-scale immersive visits with a high level of detail and their requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a training system developed in France for occupational therapists on accessibility for people with disabilities. The system is based on a methodology of home planning designed by an interdisciplinary team comprised of an architect, an occupational therapist, people with disabilities, physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians, and professionals concerned with accessibility. (DB)

Biomimicry is a growing field of developing environmental innovations for materials, facade systems, buildings, and urban planning. In France, we observe an extensive diversity of initiatives in biomimicry for the development of regenerative cities. These initiatives blossom in a large range of areas, from education to urban policies, to achieve a major environmental, social and economic paradigm shift. To provide a comprehensive understanding of this development at the national scale, this paper presents and discusses the diversity of the developed initiatives over the last 10 years in six main fields-education, urban policies, fundamental and applied research, design demonstrators, arts, and communication. This research is an opportunistic study based on the analysis of these initiatives enriched by the feedback of the stakeholders collected by the authors working in the field of biomimicry over the last seven years. We identify that biomimicry in France has mainly extended through individual initiatives of teachers, territorial authorities, architectural studios, or researchers rather than through the support of public policies. Putting into perspective developments in biomimicry by other countries, this cross-discipline analysis provides recommendations for the extensive development of regenerative architecture and urbanism at the national scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Technical Transactions / Czasopismo Techniczne is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper analyses the architecture of the national economic intelligence system of the French Republic, evaluating its degree of compliance in relation with a set of 12 specific characteristics for an efficient economic intelligence system. The analysis is made using the CODV tool of Six-Sigma. The study validates to what extent France's national security strategy sets out directions to strengthen economic security. At the same time, the article analyses if the architecture of the national economic intelligence system facilitates efforts correlation within the intelligence community and whether the cooperation between the national economic intelligence system's entities categories can be realised. Subsequently, it is analysed whether the economic intelligence system is an integrated component of the national intelligence system, whether it allows all sources analysis and whether it facilitates the use of new technologies through intelligence cycle stages. Following the above steps, it is finally determined with what efficiency the France's economic intelligence system can provide support information needed to increase the competitiveness of the national economy. Thus, analysing areas in which the French economic intelligence system performs, were identified some good practices that can be the basis for proposals to increase the efficiency of the national economic intelligence system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streets are the main structural elements in creating urban facades and urban landscape as well as shaping citizen's perception and interpretation from the urban landscape; that's why they are considered the context for most important urban designs. Flandre Street (L'avenue de Flandre) in district 19 of Paris has witnessed various city projects for nearly half a century. The factor which determines Flandre Street is the bold action on the physics of the city which is in complete contradiction with urban conservative policy. In the 60s and 70s modern sculptural forms without any attention to the historic context and scale of the street with a mix of towers and fences formed the street's façade. The Paris Municipality decided to design the central space with widening the street to modify the extreme differences between the two edges because it had affected the traditional and Parisian facade of the 19 district. After the second project Flandre Street was renamed to Flandre urban street. This paper tries to analyze and assess the recent proceedings in Flandre Street based on Paris City paper documents in the past six decades and according to the process of façade formation in different periods on the consequences resulted from the followed approaches in its renovation. Although in the two big projects where lots of effort and expenses were spent and the municipality of Paris tried to transform Flandre Street to North Champs Elysees according to the comprehensive plan of the sec-ond half of the 20th century, the project seems to be a failure due to lack of integrity. Each project focuses on the physics of the street and doesn't consider them an integrated whole. Although the modern western edge obtained a specific characteristic as a separated large-scale street, the noticeable fact is that Flandre Street was formed and grew apart from its identity and origins and physical approaches to the recently approved reform plan did not work in to forming the street's fagade. In other words in every project the street was analyzed into its contributing elements; In the Renovation Project, the body was the main issue and the in widen-ing project, the floor was the most significant. Though each of the con-stituent parts of the street landscape can be the subject of a separate design, but the contest and executive and scientific proceedings should be also prepared. The definite use of imperative and technically restric-tive comprehensive plan was the factor which resulted in the concept of decomposition of a whole street to separable parts in walls and floors due to the street management policies. While the urban fagade is not formed by physical confinements and it is approved in multiple renovation experi-ences in Flandre Street within the last 50 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present an original environment, the Distributed Collaborative Design Studio (DCDS) which allows multimodal real-time remote exchanges, and which aims at re-creating remotely the conditions of co-present meetings. This environment associates a videoconference tool (supporting verbal and non-verbal communication) and an original realtime shared digital hand-drawn sketches system (supporting graphical communication). The users can import documents and annotate them in real-time at distance. In this paper, we are interested in studying the use of the graphical modality (digital sketch and document annotations) as a tool for collective design and remote communication. This study takes place in the framework of a collaborative architectural design studio, which has taken place during 3 month, and gathering students from Belgium and France to work together in 3 small groups mainly at distance. The study focuses on the role of graphical modality in the synchronous remote meetings supported by the DCDS. We identify the types of digital annotations made on the imported document, thanks to the electronic pen, and their role in the cognitive processes of designing and in the collaboration and communication processes. We also identify the different practices of digital sketching, according to the group and its collaborative strategies. We discuss the utility of the graphical modality as an efficient support for collaborative synchronous activities and show that the DCDS environment supports different strategies of collaborative design (co-design and distributed design). We conclude on recommendations for improving the system and for designing sketch-based collaborative environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archeologia Postmedievale is the property of Edizioni all'Insegna del Giglio and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper is devoted to the case—hitherto virtually unknown—of an anonymous French master mason from St.-Denis, active around 1416–30 in the wealthy town of Legnica in Silesia. Invited to Central Europe in the turbulent times of the Hundred Years' War by the local duke Louis II, in Legnica he executed several works, foremost among them the von der Heyde Chapel at the parish church of Saints Peter and Paul, featuring an impressive stellar vault with a hanging boss. Attributed to the French master on stylistic grounds, it constitutes a unique example of a remarkably mature design from the early phase of Flamboyant architecture, in some respects predating its geographically distant yet stylistically proximate parallels in France itself. This article reconstructs the master's oeuvre, discusses the chapel's artistic origin in the Île-de-France of the early fifteenth century, and shows its surprising importance in the history of French late medieval architecture. In this context, the Silesian monument is all the more important because so little architecture survives from the Parisian milieu of the early fifteenth century. The works of the French master active in Legnica analyzed here should be considered as representative examples of the rapid stylistic development that occurred within the initial phase of Flamboyant architecture in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Balthazar‐Georges Sage (1740–1824), a chemist, mineralogist, and the founder of the École Royale des Mines (1783), owned two mineral collections: a mineralogy collection used for his research and teaching, which later became the property of the École Royale itself; and a private cabinet of objets d'art, consisting largely of artistically worked mineral objects. Although created for different purposes, Sage valued both for their utility and their aesthetics. This paper explores the dual character of the collections by presenting Sage as a man of science and an art lover. It argues that his lifelong concern with aesthetics was the underlying link between the two collections, his teaching practices, and his aim in founding of the École Royale des Mines to improve France's mining industry. Through aesthetics, Sage sought to build a coherent whole, which he referred to as a "national monument," consisting of the collections, the school, and his work as a teacher and a mineralogist. In the years leading up to the French Revolution, the collections—a central part within this coherent whole—were the key element in establishing the social identity of the new institution as well as that of Sage himself. In the context of political upheaval, the social, economic, and aesthetic value of the collections became tied to the political aims of the republic, in particular, its interest in building the new nation through its heritage as conserved in its national monuments: the new republican museums. Sage used the term museum to define both collections: this analysis of their relationship and the different functions he attributed to them reveals how profoundly collecting practices were changing in revolutionary and post‐revolutionary France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Towers have been making a comeback in European cities since the end of the 1990s and the French city of Lyon is no exception. After building a seminal office tower in the business district of La Part-Dieu in the 1970s, it has taken a long time for France's second largest metropolitan area to see the construction of a cluster of tall buildings. Recently, as part of the regeneration of La Part-Dieu, towers have re-emerged to accompany economic and political metropolization processes. The aim of the municipality is to design a new skyline, symbolizing the economic dynamism of the city, attract investors and anchor Lyon in the urban competition between European cities. But this policy also reveals the difficulties facing European 'second cities' in building an office market buoyant enough for towers. Marked by successive failures, the return of office towers in Lyon is now backed by the strong political involvement needed to secure projects and implement exceptional governance procedures. This paper deals with the political and economic mechanisms that led to building the skyline of a European 'second city' from a historical perspective. The temporalities of high-rise office developments underline changing actors, the strategies and the governance deployed to build towers, and the lasting will to forge a vertical city. First, we analyse the context in which the first tower was built in the 1960s-1970s and the territorial transformations caused by this development. Secondly, we study the failures of the projects initiated in the 1980s and the 1990s in order to explain the economic and political difficulties that Lyon is facing in its quest for new tower projects. Finally, we analyse the governance implemented for the Oxygen and Incity Towers, built during the last decade, to show how governments have mobilized actors and instruments to achieve their ambitions. These actors and instruments are linked to highly confidential and institutional arrangements for vertical commercial developments in Lyon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the regulation of architectural activity in Europe and especially in France and to the ways architects manage this regulation. The globalization of this activity has generated a strong consciousness that supranational regulation is necessary, both among architects' professional associations and in governments. One of the main difficulties is the differences in the division of labour from one country to another. But European regulation supposes that national states will implement the directives into national law. France is an example of the lightest possible adaptation. This is all the more surprising as the architectural profession in France is characterized by structural weaknesses to resist international competition and as the administration is willing to help it adapt to this competition. The history of trade unionism and the structure of representation explain some of the difficulties because of a particular trait of the architectural profession: what I call a weak 'reflective capacity'. The paper is partly devoted to defining this notion and showing its relevance for the sociological analysis of professions. This weakness encourages individual strategies of adaptation to increasing international competition, without the professional associations and their representatives being able to control these strategies and their consequences for the profession. This demonstrates that the various sources of regulation are not exclusive and must be studied together so as to understand their interrelations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the French system of innovation in the construction sector, and points out its strengths and its weaknesses, through the analysis of a specific institution: Plan Construction et Architecture (PCA). The originality of PCA is its capacity to encourage innovation by experimentation. PCA mobilizes all the representatives of the construction sector (clients, professionals, contractors, etc.) to conceive and work together on innovation, through 'Realisations Experimentales' (REX). Independant researchers provide expertise and evaluate the results of these experimentations. This paper points out the major lessons which can be drawn for this system. Dans cet article, l'auteur explique comment, en France, le secteur de la construction aborde le concept d'innovation et fait ressortir les points forts et les points faibles de cette approche par le biais de l'analyse d'une institution specifique, le Plan Construction et Architecture (PCA). L'originalite du PCA reside dans sa capacite a encourager l'innovation par l'experimentation. Le PCA mobilise tous les acteurs presents sur la scene de la construction (clients, professionnels, contractants, etc.) pour qu'ils concoivent et concourent ensemble a l'innovation en presentant des "Realisations experimentales" (REX). Des chercheurs independants apportent leurs competences et evaluent les resultats de ces experimentations. L'auteur insiste sur les grands enseignements que l'on peut en tirer pour ce systeme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around 1980, two important competitions were launched on both sides of the Channel. One led to the Grande Arche in La Défense (Johann Otto von Spreckelsen, 1982-1989) and the other to the Lloyd's building of London (Richard Rogers Partnership, 1977-1986). Recalling the history of these two projects, we will try, in this article, to show how the programmes, their formulation, the methods used and, above all, the culture of the various actors influenced both the decisions and the built results. At the end of the paper, we propose to see these buildings as events. Based on the analysis of these competitions, we will show that these buildings can then be considered as belonging to two different categories - historical and spatial event - that we will define. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that some of the drawings in the celebrated portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt shed light on medieval notions of the difficulty, as well as the ease, of invention. Frequently, Villard's drawings are seen as disconnected 'studies', but it is argued here that in some cases their relationships are thoughtful, and may be understood by reference, rhetorical in origin, to wrestling as a metaphor for intellectual or artistic struggle. Though artistic invention was not discussed in the Middle Ages as much as it was in the Renaissance, it is suggested that Villard's use of the imagery of fierce action belongs to a phase of heroic attainment in Gothic architecture particularly, in northern France around 1200. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Balthazar‐Georges Sage (1740–1824), a chemist, mineralogist, and the founder of the École Royale des Mines (1783), owned two mineral collections: a mineralogy collection used for his research and teaching, which later became the property of the École Royale itself; and a private cabinet of objets d'art, consisting largely of artistically worked mineral objects. Although created for different purposes, Sage valued both for their utility and their aesthetics. This paper explores the dual character of the collections by presenting Sage as a man of science and an art lover. It argues that his lifelong concern with aesthetics was the underlying link between the two collections, his teaching practices, and his aim in founding of the École Royale des Mines to improve France's mining industry. Through aesthetics, Sage sought to build a coherent whole, which he referred to as a "national monument," consisting of the collections, the school, and his work as a teacher and a mineralogist. In the years leading up to the French Revolution, the collections—a central part within this coherent whole—were the key element in establishing the social identity of the new institution as well as that of Sage himself. In the context of political upheaval, the social, economic, and aesthetic value of the collections became tied to the political aims of the republic, in particular, its interest in building the new nation through its heritage as conserved in its national monuments: the new republican museums. Sage used the term museum to define both collections: this analysis of their relationship and the different functions he attributed to them reveals how profoundly collecting practices were changing in revolutionary and post‐revolutionary France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study places Charles-Edouard Jeanneret/Le Corbusier's concept of the architectural promenade within the culture of La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1887–1917. It is based on in-depth empirical research being currently carried out in private and public archives in La Chaux-de-Fonds and in other Swiss towns. The paper also considers to a lesser extent specific aspects of the architecture of Le Corbusier in Paris after 1917, which are in accord with the La Chaux-de-Fonds period of 1887–1917, based on current in-depth research in private and public archives in France. The essay, which thus presents completely new empirical evidence, is part of research in progress towards a monograph in preparation for the MIT Press. By extrapolation, through its analysis of Jeanneret/Le Corbusier's architectural promenade within the cultural and intellectual context of La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1887–1917, the study addresses the problematics of the architectural language of the Modern Movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Banlieues 89 was a design-led initiative in French urban policy in France in the 1980s. The initiative or 'movement',which was multidisciplinary in its approach, challenged existing preconceptions and professional practice with regard to inner and outer suburban areas. In its focus on combating social exclusion, the initiative presaged current preoccupations with social difference, marginality and urban design quality. This paper outlines critically the history of the Banlieues 89 movementand suggests that its contribution to urban design discourse has a contemporary significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Current Sociology is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The French pavilion at the 2004 Venice Biennale of Architecture took up the theme of sustainable design through a "prospective game" that challenged participating architects to imagine an urban neighborhood's transformation in response to economic, social, and environmental constraints over the following 30 years. The exhibition paradoxically appeared to proclaim French sustainable know-how at a time when French architects viewed the profession as lagging behind their European neighbors in terms of ecological approaches. By framing sustainability as avant-garde, experimental design, the pavilion reconciled "French" and "sustainable" architecture. Examining this exhibit and its impact contributes to an understanding of French self-fashioning of national identity around culture. Moreover, this case demonstrates how cultural elements of identity influence responses to global challenges such as climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussion on Large Urban Projects. They involve conflicting agents and are subjected to analysis beyond projectual scrutinity. Paper prioritizes the understanding of a selection of printed media contemporaneous to Haussmann's works in Paris, and is based on three assumptions: criticism observed in the past repeats in contemporary cities; debates, there and now, do not allow for nuances; analysis of the distant observer prevails praise; analysis of someone closer to it is full of harsh criticism. Material used was a selection of The New York Times discussing works of the modernization of Paris under the responsibility of Haussmann. The discussion and conclusion are based on this material and reiterate assumptions adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Édouard Baldus, a prominent figure in the history of French photography, is known almost exclusively for his silver-based photographs of the 1850s and early 1860s. Yet Baldus was also at the forefront of developments in photomechanical reproduction, publishing seven albums of photogravure prints between 1866 and 1884. Palais du Louvre et des Tuileries. Motifs de décorations, published in various editions between 1869 and 1875, was the first to reproduce his own photographs rather than engravings by earlier artists. It depicts architectural elements of the Louvre and Tuileries palaces, images that derive largely from Baldus’s commission between 1855 and 1857 to document the construction of the New Louvre. Drawing from analyses of Palais’s prints and their corresponding photographs, this article examines Baldus’s photogravure process and his strategies as an editor and publisher of his own work. It furthermore demonstrates that he chose to illustrate Palais with photogravures rather than photographs for specific aesthetic and conceptual reasons in addition to concerns about economy and the stability of silver-based prints. Lastly, this article argues for the significance of Baldus’s photogravure production to his entire oeuvre and to the development of photomechanical processes in the mid-nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Paris is one of the most fascinating and most popular cities for tourism attraction in the world. Paris not only obtains its charm for its valuable historic buildings and signs value, but also the city itself is a cause of tourism attraction. This city is distinguished from other tourism destination by offering unity of space and integrated management. Pedestrian spaces, human scale, sin river stations and performances on the street makes the strolling in streets and watching the facades more exciting than entering the buildings. Paris consists of two quite distinct parts: the historic and modern sectors. A coordinated, integrated and monotone Parisian architecture is observed in the historic sector while the modern sector offers international style of architecture which can be seen in many other European cities. There is no influence of modernity and modern architecture in the historic city centre. The sin river acts as an interface of these sectors and its sides have been organized in different places according to the context. This policy has protected the historical heritage and has conveyed all the innovations and "internationalisms" to distant locations. But does this maximum detachment seem as pleasant to the citizens as others? Strict determination of managers in holding conservative policies of urban managers is quite obvious in the landscape and urban facade of Paris. This urban facade has accomplished through decades of conservative management and in particular the shaping and implementation of facadism in the city. It seems that what facadism has offered in three aesthetic, functional and cultural-identity aspects have converge in creating a type of "dualism" in urban landscape of Paris which can be classified as following: Maximum contrast between the aesthetics stated by managers and visual city division Life in two completely separate and uncon-nected sectors and even hided from each other (life in urban open spaces and life within buildings) Absence of identity in Paris due to equipol-lent modern and historic sectors This paper tries to root out and analyze the influences of facadism on urban landscape of Paris and refers them to cited existing documents, studies and criticisms to accomplish its purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper classifies the Cypriot Art Déco and addresses it, for the first time, as the dominating modernist variant of the 1930s-1940s in Cyprus. We argue that, out of several Art Déco trends, the Mendelsohnian streamline moderne is by far the prevalent and is characterized by a common, rounded architectural morphology. Main sources of this "Mediterranean Art Déco", more or less immediate, are primarily France, England, Athens, and a now partially anonymous local architectural elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the development of Le Corbusier's concept of multi-unit housing in the period of post-war reconstruction in France. It also presents some global attempts to redefine what was once known as the universal Modern style. The analysis of his housing concept as well as the emphasis on his commitment to principles he earlier rejected aim to show that the Unité in Marseille can be considered as a breakthrough followed by a new and final stage of his creative work, devoid, however, of a meaningful vision of the basic architectural and urban planning tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Arquiteturarevista is the property of Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Wesleyan-Brown Monastic Archaeology project (MonArch) integrates research results from standing remains, excavated material culture, and texts from the Augustinian abbey of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes in northern France. The digital dimension of the MonArch project re-presents the site through three-dimensional reconstructions of its architecture, inventories of its material culture, and searchable encoded texts. The site employs a variety of strategies to engage the viewer/user in critiques of our knowledge representations. In this paper, we explore the ethical and analytic aspects of archaeological recording and present preliminary results of our work on representing time, human movement, and uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the many questions raised by the column-statues removed from the west facade of Saint-Denis, six heads of which are now in museums on both sides of the Atlantic, two have been less frequently addressed than the others: Why were the statues removed from the facade? and why were they beheaded? While acts of vandalism usually occurred during the Revolutionary period in France, the sculptures were actually removed from the facade earlier, in 1771. This paper argues that their removal was not an isolated act but part of a more general renovation of the western entrance to the church and that all the work carried out in 1771 should be considered as a whole, involving not only the statue-columns and the trumeau, but the bronze doors and the parvis as well (but not, as has sometimes been said, the tympanum of the northern portal). This renovation reflects the ambiguous attitude toward Gothic art held by many during the second half of the eighteenth century. That ambiguity resulted from interest in the architecture and disdain for its ornament. The attitude can be seen as the product of writings by architectural theoreticians like abbé Laugier. Yet while the statues were separated from their columns in 1771 for aesthetic reasons during the remodeling of the facade, it seems that they were kept within the abbey precincts and that this was the place where they were ultimately beheaded, presumably during the events of 1793. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I trace the emergence, development, and demise of a hitherto largely ignored but peculiarly French architectural type, the domed entry pavilion. The essential features of the Porte Dauphine at Fontainebleau are traced to the elder du Cerceau's projects for portals at Verneuil I and Charleval combined with suggestions drawn from temporary structures erected for royal entries, particularly that of Henry IV into Rouen. I then propose that the formal logic of the Porte Dauphine compels one to interpret it as an architectural proclamation of Henry's emerging claim to royal absolutism, an assertion backed contextually by a close scrutiny of the sociopolitical situation at the time of its inception and erection. This new monarchic image of power finds its aesthetic maturity in the better-known domed entry pavilion of the Luxembourg Palace. This pavilion in turn is a fusion of the Porte Dauphine with alternative formal possibilities found at Verneuil II and Montceaux, the latter already an important seat of the Luxembourg's patron and Henry's consort, Marie de'Medici. In a possible challenge-and-response series, the duchess of Longueville's château of Coulommiers, its domed entry based on the Valois mausoleum, had immediately preceded the Luxembourg. Coulommiers in turn proved a foil for the immense country seat of Richelieu, itself a foil for the project for Blois promoted by Marie's younger son. Thirty years later the architect of Blois, Frangois Mansart, sought to revive the motif of the domed entry with all of its layers of significance in his masterful designs for the east façade of the Louvre. Formally and politically such a revival was not possible in the age of Louis XIV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the Lycee Polyvalent building in Frejus, France designed by British architect Norman Foster. It provides relevant architectural drawings, floor plans, blueprints, architectural perspectives and site plan of different sections of the building. The paper also describes the materials and architectural elements and style used in the project.

The article explores the rise of special-needs schools in postrevolutionary France as a product of the Enlightenment and its significance to the history of architecture in the country. It describes two projects that are considered landmarks in the history of institutional architecture in France. It discusses the emergence of disability education during the late 18th century that intersected with key intellectual and social discourses of the era.

In order to design, manage and optimize the performance of a photovoltaic (PV) installation and establish a precise power production estimation, irradiance on the plane of array (POA) in relation with the geometrical characteristics of the PV modules installation occupies a high importance. This study focuses on the development of an estimation model of the POA irradiance for a photovoltaic installation equipped with flat reflectors. The model includes solar irradiance components (global, direct and diffuse), geometrical parameters and geographical characteristics of the PV installation. Experimental validations have been performed with measurements taken at the SIRTA Observatory (48.7°N, 2.2°E) in Palaiseau, France, for the period starting from June 2017 to June 2018. Results show mean absolute errors (relative to the mean) of 6% and 7% for an installation without and with planar reflector. Finally, we present several geometrical optimization strategies of the PV-reflector installation relying on two major variables: the reflector's length (LR) compared to the length of the PV module (LPV) and the tilt angle adjustment frequency (monthly, seasonally, fixed) of the system (for both PV and the reflectors). The objective of such optimization is to discuss about a reasonable configuration to achieve a maximum POA irradiance. Results show that the length of the mirrors highly affects the efficiency and performances of the PV-Reflector system and the annual gain increased from 8.5% to 28.7% when going from LR = LPV/2 to LR = 2 × LPV compared to a monthly-optimized installation without mirrors. As for the adjustment frequency, we show that a monthly-varied architecture is the most advantageous option with a 28.2 and 31.6% increasing in annual gain compared to a seasonal varied or fixed ones, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical stratigraphy, architecture and evolution of barrier systems in hypertidal environments (tidal range above 6 m) are understudied, and depositional controls are poorly understood compared with wave‐dominated barrier systems and barrier spits in microtidal, mesotidal and macrotidal settings. Based on vibracores, ground‐penetrating radar, radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence age data, the formation and evolution of the hypertidal barrier system of Pointe du Banc, north‐western France has been reconstructed. The study shows that the barrier spit has a complex composite sedimentary architecture consisting of wave‐dominated and tide‐dominated sedimentary bodies. A morpho‐sedimentary model is presented that demonstrates how barrier‐spit progradation resulting from littoral drift was the main manner of spit elongation, whereas sediment convergence caused by landward migration of swash bars and seaward migration of tidal dunes caused the spit terminus to grow in height and width. These results suggest that long‐term accretion rates varied considerably in response to changes in sediment supply. Variations in storminess together with the large‐scale topography of the coast controlled the sediment supply and thus the evolution of the barrier system during latest Holocene. Despite architectural complexity, hypertidal barrier systems preserve records of past climate changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the design of the Galerie Saint-Louis at the Palais de Justice building in Paris, France as a walk-in diorama. Topics include the notion of restoration of architectural heritage, the role of architect Alphonse de Gisors in the project, and a restoration project at the Sainte-Chapelle judicial archives building in Paris.

Why are some organizations famous? We argue that fame results from a conjunction of several audiencespecific reputations. Expert reputation (i.e. reputation among members of a knowledgeable group, such as a cultural elite or critics) acts as a mediator for achieving fame for organizations held in high esteem by their peers and clients. Based on a unique database of 103 architectural companies in France, our analysis uses structural equation modelling (SEM) combined with mediation effects to reveal that expert reputation can lead to fame by mediating peer and client reputations. We contribute to the literature by explaining why only some organizations already reputed among peers and clients are famous in society at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined human-computer interactions in which the operator has to detect errors made by software designed to automatically recognize technical documents. The goal was to assess the effect of user-initiated interruptions of the recognition process to correct these errors. Participants were asked to check the interpretations, either with or without the possibility of interrupting the process. Results showed that interruptions can improve efficiency by decreasing task duration, especially in the post-recognition verification phase. Interruptions provide an opportunity to correct errors during rather than after the recognition process, which is easier because it requires fewer cognitive resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Collège des Ecossaisin Montpellier, France, Patrick Geddes' last major project and place of death in 1932, may have been a mere reproduction of his Edinburgh Outlook Tower under fairer skies. The site Geddes fell in love with in the South was, characteristically of his ideals, mostly a place with a view, in fact over much of Languedoc. As we shall show, this view was one of a whole region made ‘legible’ at a glance, with city, mountains and sea, a prospect at the same time wide and limited, an area with ready access to the rest of the world yet self-contained. Besides, what the ageing Geddes wanted to achieve near Montpellier was no less than to gather a representative assemblage of up-and-coming scholars from three continents. Yet again, the Collège may have been an excuse for Geddes to postpone the writing of long-awaited books. However, we will see that it also served as a stone-and-mortar receptacle for his ideas and systems, which would hardly be surprising from a thinker who was ever looking for ways of escaping traditional teaching methods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What structuralism in architecture aimed at has often been misunderstood. Structuralism was not about democracy, giving the users of a building the possibility to make changes in it. On the contrary, structuralism aimed at expressing social patterns and relations and these were apprehended as permanent and invariant and definitely not possible to change. Architects and city planners organized buildings and cities on the basis of communication routes, streets, and squares, what in a structuralist analysis constitutes the invariant structures of a city. Social patterns were apprehended not only as invariant but also as complex and, therefore, ideal buildings and cities should be complex, often visualized as a jumble of corridors, roads, underground-tracks, and footbridges in different levels connected by escalators, stairs, and elevators being stressed by their size, color, or material. To stress binary pairs was another aspect of structuralism in architecture. Outside/inside and nature/culture are examples of this. It lead architects to use materials we normally would associate with exteriors in interiors such as "raw" concrete; that is, concrete walls with no plaster or stonepaving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates a contemporary flowering of digital flânerie parallel to that which philosopher Walter Benjamin analyzed in the first decades of the Parisian arcades. It attempts to obtain the primal history of the nineteenth century to orient the reader from the commodity-driven dream of consumer capitalism. The dialectic of flânerie described by Benjamin is also discussed.

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This essay situates the development of early 'glass house' film studios in the history of nineteenth-century glass-and-iron architecture. It focuses on Georges Melies's first studio (built in 1897) and describes its roots in structures including the Galeries des Machines at Paris's international expositions and the photography studio on the roof of Melies's magic theatre in Paris. Filmmakers such as Melies used the same materials and designs that changed turn-of-the-century Western cities to create the first buildings for film production. In doing so, they made the primary characteristics of nineteenth-century architecture - spatial plasticity and fluidity, artificiality, and the manipulation of light - defining elements of both the first film studios and the films created there. This essay argues that early cinema, especially in its relationship to architecture, played a significant role in the changes of industrial modernity that historians of technology describe as the greatest technological revolution in history: the construction of an increasingly artificial, human-built world. As urban populations adjusted to the artificiality of modern space, cinema arrived to both re-imagine the built environment and re-create artificial worlds on the screen. Filmmakers such as Melies, who built and worked in the first studios, occupied a unique position: both the films they made and the spaces in which they worked were at the vanguard of fraught changes in the experience of Western urban reality. While early film historians have detailed the ways that urban modernity affected cinematic spectatorship, this essay shows that film production spaces were part and parcel of that process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Le Corbusier’s debt to vernacular architecture has been frequently discussed, the particular effects that the architect searched for in his postwar buildings have been insufficiently studied. The Maisons Jaoul (1951–1955) are a case in point. Le Corbusier’s search for a direct, expressive, and tactile quality of building is here also related to his interest in the ideas and practice of Jean Dubuffet. Le Corbusier was not a regionalist but he particularly admired craftsmen from the Mediterranean basin, who, he believed, retained a vigorous and comprehensive sympathy for materials. This article, using firsthand interviews with Le Corbusier’s craftsmen, explores the complex and subtle ways that Le Corbusier and his assistants negotiated the textural effects they desired, which Le Corbusier described ironically as mal foutu (messed up). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]