Bernard Tschumi Architects: Virtuael

In 2001, the International Bureau of Exhibitions confirmed France as the site for the 2004 World Expo, whose theme would be "Image--Images." France had not hosted an exhibition of this scale since 1937. A competition was held, and Bernard Tschumi Architectes was chosen as the Chief Architect of the 51-hectare site and as architect for several of the individual Expo buildings. Virtuael documents the development of the project, a project which will forever remain in its virtual state, as the Expo was cancelled in 2002. Here we have a master plan which includes gates, bridges, pavilions, kiosks, and an agora, and which leads to a peculiarly contemporary question, or perhaps the answer to the question: What would be, architecturally speaking, the "image of the image"? Published on the occasion of an exhibition at La Galerie d'Architecture, Paris.