Dennis & Aimee's Big Gay Paris Adventure

Paris has this weird thing on October first called Blanche Nuit, or White Night. Apparently it's a euphemism for staying up all night, and going to sleep when it's light outside. The festival involves hundreds of art exhibits that begin at 7pm and stay open until 4am. I wasn't sure what to expect, but since Greg and Dennis are in Amsterdam, I figured I'd go check it out. I started out at about 8pm, and walked all over Paris for hours and hours, getting home after 1am (and just catching the last metro!). I saw some neat exhibits, like this one, which was in the courtyard of l’Hôpital de la Pitié Salpêtrière (a real hospital with a courtyard in among giant old buildings):



It was strange to be out so late and still have the street so full of people. I explored St. Germain and the area around the Pantheon, and fell in love with that neighborhood. I can't wait to go back and show Dennis. I also visited the Institut du Monde Arabe (Institute of the Arab World) which is a *gorgeous* building with white LED lights indented into the large courtyard at regular intervals, and cool Arabian patterns cut into the glass on the side of the building. I walked around their gift store which is like a bazaar of crafts from every Arab country, and I bought a giant red tassle. The building is beautiful, but my research turned up a few interesting facts...

Nouvel produces a wonderfully minimal composition of forms: a gently curving wall to the north facing the Seine comes to a sharp and deep cleft as it meets a rectilinear block which faces a large open plaza and the university buildings to the south. Most notable, as we would expect from Nouvel, is the surface treatment. Along the south facade the IMA reinterprets traditional Arab latticework screens in glass and steel: 30,000 light-sensitive diaphragms are designed to regulate the penetration of light into the building.

The unique use of high-tech photosensitive mechanical devices to control light levels and transparency—as well as the beauty of the solution—made this building famous and piqued interest in the use of ‘smart’ materials (which can respond to changing environments) in buildings. The problem: the system no longer works. Nonetheless, the south facade is quite beautiful.

Here are two pictures of it that I like a lot:



Apparently other cities are starting this wacky up-all-night thing. I'd love to do the one in Rome, huh?

--Aimee