Communist Conspiracies: Party Headquarters Architecture and Aggiornamento in Paris, 1965–1980
Vanessa Grossman
On the eve of May 1968, the apparently monolithic character of the French Communist Party (PCF), which ran the risk of seeming authoritarian or totalitarian, was aesthetically mitigated by the idea of architecture as a mirror. This metaphor was well suited to the dualistic, dialectical, and split Cold War mentality, which gradually gave way to an internal scission between the PCF’s hardline cold warriors and the vanguard who favored a thaw and aggiornamento (updating). This lecture will examine the commissioning of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer for the design of the new PCF headquarters in Paris (1965–1980), the iconic concrete-and-mirrored-glass building that came to represent this aggiornamento.
Vanessa Grossman is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology.
Image caption:
Oscar Niemeyer, headquarters of the French Communist Party (1965–1980), photograph by Ciro Miguel, 2021.
LOCATION:485 Broadway Lower Lecture Hall STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20230206T230000Z DTEND:20230206T230000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR