Riccardo Forte: La sede del Partito Comunista Francese a Parigi

Riccardo Forte: La sede del Partito Comunista Francese a Parigi

Riccardo Forte: La sede del Partito Comunista Francese a Parigi. La seduzione estetica della linea curva

THE PARIS HEADQUARTERS OF THE FRENCH COMMUNIST PARTY
The construction of the central headquarters of the French Communist Party in Paris, bâtimentdrapeau by brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer marked a historical event of international importance. An exceptional episode in the panorama of the post war Modern Movement. This prodigious building is the result of a revolutionary design which unites, in unrepeatable synthesis, the creative talent of its designer, the constructional skill of the technicians and workers and the passion and the civil commitment of tens of thousands of militants. The originality and innovative range of the niermeyerian project, a visionary dèmarche ideally forged in the lyrical sinuosity of curvilinear forms and in the sobriety of the materials which exhibit the elegance of the meeting of glass and cement, far from representing an architectonic challenge to the potentialities offered by the modern technology of construction, essentially consist in the idealism implicit in the completion of an ethical aim. The partial dismission and prevision of the functional progressive rehabilitation of the edifice bring to the centre of disciplinary debate the more general question of the preservation of contemporary architecture and highlight the need to define new interpretive approaches to cultural heritage and legacy associated with these totemic architectures.