For nearly two years, this case, with its many twists and turns, has pitted and involved several players: the National Assembly and its president Yaël Braun-Pivet, Paris City Hall and the association Sites & Monuments.
The project for the National Assembly's new visitor pavilion is far from winning unanimous support. Championed by the president of the institution, Yaël Braun-Pivet, it plans to replace the historic stone pavilion dating from 1888 with a contemporary glass structure. The future building is intended 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 materials on a large scale, namely glass", explains to Euronews Julien Lacaze, president of Sites & Monuments. He recalls that the project is due to be built within a Remarkable Heritage Site (SPR) in the 7th arrondissement, in an area listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In his view, the architectural project breaks the historic harmony of the Seine embankments on several levels: it destroys the symmetry between La Madeleine and the colonnade of the Palais-Bourbon, brings glass in on a massive scale to an ensemble dominated by stone, and undermines both the horizontality and the architectural unity of the site.
