L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui: Issue 208, April 1980 - Les Halles Competition in Paris

Shortly after the destruction of Baltard's market halls in 1973, which AA had strongly opposed, the editorial team organised a ‘counter-competition of ideas’ in response to the official competition for the new market halls. The jury included international figures such as Carlo Aymonino, Roland Barthes, Bruno Zevi, Philip Johnson and Diana Agrest, as well as renowned French architects such as Jean Nouvel and Henri Ciriani. The results gave rise to fascinating designs: a fantasy Paris where the hole left by Les Halles was transformed into a medieval city or a laboratory for a technophile city, reflecting the creativity and inventiveness of the 1980s.