Power to Reach the Sky

 montparnasse-tower_1Bounding for heaven is evidently much more stronger than fear of death. Not only money is that driving force. It is also the reasons of prestige and the symbolic representation  of power. Let us discover Maine-Montparnasse Tower. This 210-metre (689 ft) tall office skyscraper, commonly known as Tour Montparnasse, was designed by architects Eugène Beaudouin, Urbain Cassan and Louis Hoym de Marien. It was the tallest skyscraper in France until 2011. At the time of construction, it was the tallest building in Europe by roof height.

Simply, criticism …

Tour Montparnasse, currently the eleventh tallest building in the European Union, has been often criticised for being out of place in Paris’s urban landscape. As a result, two years after its completion, the construction of skyscrapers in the city centre was banned. It was the tower’s simple architecture, large proportions and monolithic appearance that  moved such a severe criticism. The design of the tower predates architectural trends that placed high importance on a view of the outside, and so only offices around the perimeter of each floor have windows. More modern skyscrapers are often designed to provide a window for every office.

Various concepts

In the famous “Louisiana Manifesto” one can read: “The age needs architects who doubt, who seek without thinking they have found, who put themselves at risk to rediscover the values of empiricism, who surprise themselves”. Many people was suprised by the view of Tour Montparnasse. Some even used to say that the view from the top is the most beautiful in Paris, because it is the only place from which one cannot see the tower. Architecture, like any other dispositives of contemporary culture, needs creativity and innovation which are the main factors of progress. Every age and every culture have their own concepts of beauty. There are truths on one side of the Pyrenees which are falshoods on the other. The same with the Ocean. If the Tour Montparnasse had been erected on the other side of the Ocean would have had a better opinion.

Maya M. Kowalczyk

 

 

 

 

 

 

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