Terminal 1 of Paris – Charles-de-Gaulle airport, in Roissy (Val-d’Oise), celebrated its 50th anniversary on March 8, and it’s looking good. This concrete disc placed like a flying saucer ready to take off on Y-shaped posts has the reassuring charm of works that have stood the test of time and, inside, the magic still operates. The euphoria that comes from the moment you set foot on it, the soft rubber of the treadmill, this slight intoxication that increases as you rise between the glass and concrete tubes, into the central crater, the feeling of finding yourself projected towards an elsewhere full of promise, relieved of the gravity and worries of everyday life… No wonder films are still shot there.
Emblem of the “thirty glorious years” which saw it born, of the cult of speed and progress specific to this era, the building has begun yet another transformation, which will see the disappearance of five of the seven satellites which revolve around its circumference. These small octagons on which the planes are grafted for boarding and disembarkation will give way to a continuous crown which will increase the capacity of the terminal. Two of them have already been razed, and a first section of the new building now occupies the freed space.
Upset trajectory
If terminal 1 is still in operation, it is partly due to its architect, Paul Andreu (1938-2018), who is the subject of a beautiful exhibition at the Cité de l’architecture et du heritage, in Paris. Within the Aéroports de Paris (ADP) group, where he worked for nearly forty years, notably occupying the positions of chief architect and director of projects and cooperation, he implemented a development strategy focused on the densification of buildings and the transformation of what already exists, which makes Paris a relative anomaly in the airport sector. The structures of this enormous equipment being designed to respond at any given moment to a complex situation, the parameters of which (technology and size of the aircraft, safety requirements, increase in air traffic, etc.) are evolving at a phenomenal speed, the choice is often involves demolishing to rebuild.
A graduate of Polytechnique, the School of Bridges and Roads and Fine Arts at the same time, Paul Andreu has built a lot: two hundred and twenty-five projects in total, including around twenty airports – from Dacca to Jakarta, ‘Abu Dhabi to Dar es-Salaam (Tanzania), from Nice to Conakry… -, but also major infrastructural projects – the Cruas nuclear power plant, in Ardèche, in 1985, the Grande Arche de la Défense, in 1989, the terminal French channel tunnel, known as “Transmanche”, in Calais, in 1995… – and some cultural facilities, such as the Maritime Museum of Osaka, in Japan, in 2000, or the National Grand Theater (also called the Opera of Beijing), in China, in 2007…
You have 66.74% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.