THE MORNING LIST
What if architecture allowed us to escape our daily decor? Five nuggets with foreign influences to travel without leaving and dream of our next trips.
Venice … in Paris
Cross the Luxembourg Gardens, in full 6e arrondissement of Paris, and come across a bit of… Italy. The change of scenery is immediate when you face the Institute of Art and Archeology, astonishing bright red building built by the architect Paul Bigot in 1932 to accommodate the large collection of books bequeathed to the University of Paris by the designer Jacques Doucet. Nearly ninety years later, the building has lost none of its Italian influences, the red brick of Gournay recalling Venetian or Tuscan palaces, but also Moorish art.
Contrary to the modernist and Art Deco currents of his time, Paul Bigot claimed to be historicism which aims to enhance old architectural styles. The fresco of bas-reliefs made in terracotta by the Manufacture de Sèvres is made up of casts directly referring to Antiquity and the Middle Ages, for example. Listed since 1996, this incredible building now welcomes students in art history and archeology from the universities of Paris-I and Paris-IV.
3, rue Michelet, Paris 6e.
Moscow … in Nice
It is one of the favorite monuments of the French, located in the city center of Nice, in the park of the Villa Bermond. At the sight of the blue and green bulbous spiers and the golden crosses of the Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, characteristic of Russian religious architecture, one is immediately transported to Moscow.
In the XIXe, while the Russian community exiled on the French Riviera is more and more important, the construction of a large Orthodox church is decided. It started in 1903 and the site was entrusted to the Russian architect Mikhaïl Préobrazhensky, professor of architecture at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg. Listed as a historical monument in 1987, the religious building remains one of the most important Orthodox buildings ever built outside of Russia.
Avenue Nicolas II, 06000 Nice.
Brazil … in Royan
In the shape of a shell, Royan’s central market surprises. Designed by Louis Simon and André Morisseau, this building alone tells the astonishing story of the post-war reconstruction of Royan. At the time, on the other side of the Atlantic, in Brazil, the brilliant Oscar Niemeyer bends the concrete in a daring way, in particular with the ensemble of Pampulha, in Belo Horizonte.
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