Paris: A Guide to Recent Architecture

Paris is bursting with modern architecture, from grand projets of successive Presidents, Mayors and other public authorities, to smaller, more intimate and local projects.This book is a lovely exposition of some of the most interesting (if not always beautiful, or welcomed) architecture of the past couple of decades. The black and white photograps enhance the text and add great mood. The text is interesting, sometimes very opinionated (you probably won't agree with all the opinions - but it will perhaps challenge some of your assumptions). Discover how, after heavy criticism of the then proposed glass pyramid and massive underground entrance to the Louvre, critics came to be won over when a fullscale model was erected. The daring of Parisian projects has brought us the sublime - the aforementioned Louvre entrance, and the vile - Les Halles, for example. The book is written so that you need have no background in architecture to find it thought-provoking, interesting and very, very readable. I left it at home when I recently visited Paris (well you can't take everything), but enjoyed delving into it again as soon as I returned. If you can fit it in your luggage, it would be a great companion.