Eero Saarinen's striking 1959 chancery—one of three buildings in Europe by the architect—now houses offices, an event space, café, and restaurants thanks to Atelier Oslo and Lundhagem.
Through the creation of the Norman Foster Institute on Sustainable Cities, overseen by his Madrid-based foundation, the starchitect aims to train “the civic leaders of the future” to face the challenges of a rapidly urbanizing world.
Fragmenting the concrete structure into a pile of cantilevered boxes, the architects textured its surface with evocations of dials, nautical charts, and sedimentary rocks.
On view at Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, the exhibition traces the transit system's history from the handdug tunnels of the 1890s to the automated boring machines of the 2020s.
