For nearly two years, this case with its many twists and turns has set several players against each other and drawn them in: the National Assembly and its president Yaël Braun-Pivet, Paris city hall and the association Sites & Monuments.
The plan for the new reception pavilion of the National Assembly is far from unanimous. Championed by the president of the institution, Yaël Braun-Pivet, it involves replacing the historic stone pavilion dating from 1888 with a contemporary glass structure. The future building is to house a shop, a cafeteria and educational spaces, functions which the association Sites & Monuments considers secondary for a parliament.
"The problem is that this building would break that symmetry and introduce large quantities of a new material, namely glass", Julien Lacaze, president of Sites & Monuments, told Euronews. He recalls that the project is to be carried out within a Remarkable Heritage Site (SPR) in the 7th arrondissement, inside the perimeter listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In his view, the architectural project disrupts the historical harmony of the Seine quays on several levels: it breaks the symmetry between La Madeleine and the colonnade of the Palais-Bourbon, introduces glass on a massive scale into an ensemble dominated by stone, and undermines the horizontality and architectural unity of the site.
