Site Tour Eiffel

The team of Amanda Levete Architects / Systematica / Ricky Burdett and GROSS. MAX was one of four shortlisted in 2018 to reimagine the setting and visitor experience of the iconic Eiffel Tower. Over a ten-month period, the team worked with the Paris City Council and Société D ‘Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel to produce designs that enhance the ways in which people discover, approach and visit the site of the tower.

In our vision cities are transformed landscapes; to study and reveal the underlying landscape patterns such as geology, hydrology, topography is key to connect the process of urbanisation to its territory and to unlock new potentials to create resilient cities in times of climate change.  As part of our study of Paris and its environs we became inspired by a little book entitled the ‘On the Origin of Springs’ written in 1674 by Pierre Perrault. In this study Perrault describes his measurement of rainfall over the upper basin of the Seine, his estimates of discharge from that part of the basin, and his calculation that yearly precipitation was about six times the runoff. The study was the first quantitative demonstration that precipitation is adequate to account for the flow of springs and rivers.  It also includes an important historical introduction, large amount of very perceptive material on soil physics, soil moisture and infiltration. As such Perrault was one of the first scientist to understand the mechanics of the water cycle and can be considered as one of the principal founders of the science of hydrology.  For us, this little book “on the origin of springs ‘was key to understand the mutual independence of the river and the city and to envision the city of Paris as a living organism. The transformation of Paris as result of a collective response to climate change will manifest itself not so much in the ‘hard-ware’ but rather in radical change in the ‘soft-ware’.  We need to ‘re-program’ public space and ‘re-boot’ our ideas in respect of vegetation, paving, urban drainage, human comfort, ecology and climate amelioration. Our proposition is based upon a restorative design strategy to transform the site into a living system which include water management and treatment, habitat creation, food production. It will express and articulate the entwinement of the biological and the cultural and celebrate both bio-diversity and cultural diversity.

Whilst respecting the historic framework we create a new landscape overlay of dynamic spatial quality and new programmatic possibility. Our project will re-unite the opposite banks of the river and animate the site with its unique ambiance. The celebration of biodiversity will revitalise the garden in a contemporary fashion and. will -with reference to Alphand - ‘create an atmosphere of calculated casualness’ and enhance well-being and positively contribute to the overall visitor experience