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Headquarters French Communist Party
Place Colonel Fabien, Paris
1965 - 1967, 1981
Oscar Niemeyer received the commission for this project during his second visit to France in 1965. But it was not until 1967
that he started work on his scheme for a site that, originally limited in width, was subsequently further reduced by the intention
to widen the La Villette boulevard.
According to Oscar Niemeyer, the solution adopted is a building of curving lines which derive from the need to preserve
between this and the neighbouring building the spaces necessary for the vertical accesses situated on the exterior in the interests
of greater freedom and adaptabilitiy for future modifications. The lower floor, free of all functional requirements, is connected by means
of sloping planes to the entrance vestibule, situated 1.50 m below ground level. This is the foyer of the working class... which is developed
and multiplied with its walls in curving lines through areas designed for exhibitions, waiting rooms and conference rooms, before arriving
at the auditorium, whose cupola emerges from the exterior esplanade.
The first phase of the construction was carried out in collaboration with the architects Paul Chemetov, Jean Prouvé and Louis Pinho.