As the first stations of the Grand Paris Express are completed, the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine and the Société du Grand Paris are presenting a brand new exhibition devoted to the metro, its history and the urban transformations associated with it.
From 8 November 2023 to 2 June 2024
Châtillon – Montrouge station tunnel © Yves Chanoit / Société du Grand Paris
In 2009, the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine hosted the “Le Grand Pari(s)” exhibition in its Galerie des Moulages. Ten international architecture agencies presented their visions of the metropolis. Fifteen years on, construction of the 68 stations of the Grand Paris Express is under way and the new metro is about to come into service. The Société du Grand Paris and the Cité are joining forces to tell the story of a “Greater Paris in motion”.
Place de l’Opéra, construction site for the superposition of three metro lines, Paris 9th arrondissement, 1903 © Paris Musées /Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris
Florence tunnel boring machine © Gérard Rollando / Société du Grand Paris
The huge worksite currently underway offers an exceptional opportunity to reconsider mobility on the scale of a territory – that of a metropolis of 12 million inhabitants. With its double loop and 4 new metro lines, the network under construction will irrigate areas, create new centres and new types of public buildings, particularly to improve suburb-to-suburb travel.
The exhibition looks at the construction of the Greater Paris metropolis through the history of its metro and its 68 new stations, designed by teams of architects and artists. It explores mobility and urbanity through the genesis and development of the Paris metro, the imagination of the metro in popular culture and the technical know-how that made this extraordinary project possible. The exhibition showcases French engineering in the face of the contemporary challenges of the resilient city and the ecological transition.
Curator : Dominique Perrault, Francis Rambert, Jean-Marc Hofman
Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine
1 Pl. du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, 75116 Paris
from 8 November 2023 to 2 June 2024
