Catalan architect’s Paris building stands over Place Catalogne conversion

The ‘Les Echelles du Baroque’ building by the late Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill in the 14th arrondissement of Paris will bear witness to major renovations in Place Catalogne square over the coming years, as the area is transformed into a green space with added cycle lanes. 

"Trees and plants will be installed in the central ring, with more cycle lanes and supplementary pedestrianized walkways, the square will be able to offer new uses, and traffic will be eased," a press release on the Paris city council website reads. The idea is to finish the first phase of construction by Summer 2022 before the final project is finished in 2024, ahead of the Paris Olympic Games.

Work has started with dismantling a non-working fountain, designed by Polish artist Shamaï Haber, Fontaine du Creuset-du-Temps. The piece was a large inclined circle in the center of Place Catalogne and water fell in a cascade around the circle.

But the fountain, the local newspaper Le Parisien reports, has been turned off for over 10 years and it was inclined in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. 

"I have lived here for over eight years," Marine, a resident living in the Ricardo Bofill-desigend building told Le Parisien in 2018. "I have always seen the fountain broken. At best, it is used as a gathering place during Bastille Day on July 14, to have a better view of the fireworks," she added.

Place Catalogne

The name of the Place Catalogne was agreed upon in July 1985 by the city council. At the time, Bofill was almost finishing 'Les Echelles du Baroque' and Richard Codina suggested to the then-mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, to pay homage to Catalonia.

The building by Bofill was inspired by ancient Greek, Roman, and Italian Baroque art. 

With a neo-classical style and several columns and pediments, the building is formed of two semicircular constructions across the square. There are 574 apartments, 400 of which are affordable housing.

"The baroque provides the language necessary for the shaping of uniquely concave spaces. Baroque style composition takes into account all the points of view in space," Ricardo Bofill’s website reads. 

Ricardo Bofill

Simple forms, cubic units, avant-garde styles, unique spaces… all of this and more can be used to describe the works of the late Catalan and yet markedly cosmopolitan architect Ricardo Bofill. 

Born not long after the Spanish Civil War, Bofill was forward-thinking not only in terms of his architecture and his workshop’s multidisciplinary philosophy but also in terms of his politics, which got him in trouble with Spain’s Francoist regime.

One of the other masterpieces from Ricardo Bofill in Paris is the ‘Espaces d'Abraxas’. A collection of several buildings 12 kilometers outside the French capital. 

Listen to the episode on Catalan architects Bofill and Bohigas from our podcast Filling the Sink published in January 2022.