PB22 towers in the skyline of la Défense

  • Publish On 2 May 2017

In the context of a revitalization of La Défense, PCA-STREAM has imagined a complex form that grows through morphogenesis. La Défense, Europe's leading business district, needed a new lease on life to remain competitive with international markets. The obsolescent nature of its property holdings and the ageing character of its concrete based urban planning, sterile and closed in on itself, pushed the government in 2006 to launch a plan to accelerate and amplify the actions engaged by the EPAD. Architectural audacity was required in replacing the most obsolete of the towers, along with the objective or harmoniously reinforcing the connections with the neighbouring communes. The objective is to restore a strong image to La Défense, an image of innovation that is in phase with contemporary environmental issues.

 

 

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Using AI to tell history — podcast transcription

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Educating Citizen Architects: for a meaningful architecture

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Podcast transcript: urban metabolism, at the heart of the matter

In urban planning and geography, the concept of metabolism is frequently discussed. This organicist metaphor likens a territory to a body, traversed by flows of materials and energy that link it to its environment. From a quantitative perspective, these flows can be measured over time and space to assess what a territory consumes, processes, and produces. However, a qualitative approach is equally crucial, examining the political and social trade-offs that shape urban metabolisms. With this in mind, we spoke with two researchers, Clément Dillenseger and Pierre Desvaux, who have explored the waste sector to analyze the socio-technical infrastructures that underpin metabolism and the imaginaries that shape its perception.

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“ A catastrophe is when a belief or certitude suddenly collapses. From its ruins, narrative, political, economic and ecological utopias can be reborn. ”

Podcast

“ A catastrophe is when a belief or certitude suddenly collapses. From its ruins, narrative, political, economic and ecological utopias can be reborn. ”


Can new narratives arise from ruins?

Raphaëlle Guidée is a specialist in narrative representations of economic, environmental and societal collapse. For over 10 years, she has analyzed the narratives surrounding Detroit’s bankruptcy in order to understand how an apparent ruin of capitalism can inspire discourses of domination or resistance. In La ville d’après : Détroit, une enquête narrative [The Aftermath City: Detroit, a narrative investigation] (Flammarion), rather than focusing on fictions, she seeks out testimonies and concrete stories, believing that modern times don’t need new narratives. We simply need alternative narratives. Read the transcription of the podcast.

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“ Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing our relation to history, giving us access to previously indecipherable archives. ”

Using AI to tell history

Raphaël Doan

Podcast

“ Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing our relation to history, giving us access to previously indecipherable archives. ”


Using AI to tell history

On February 10 and 11, France hosted the Summit for Action on Artificial Intelligence, bringing together international companies and heads of state to identify the potential and limits (notably environmental) of this tool. This is an opportunity for us to discuss the subject of generative AI with Raphaël Doan, a specialist in the sciences of Antiquity and author of the uchronia Si Rome n’avait pas chuté (If Rome hadn’t fallen), an essay imagining, with the help of AI, what might have happened if the Industrial Revolution had taken place under the Roman Empire. Through this experiment, fascinating possibilities for historical and archaeological research are outlined, as AI facilitates the processing of archives, the translation of lost languages and the deciphering of burnt texts. Read here the transcription of our interview with Raphaël Doan

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