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The Grande Arche de la Fraternité is a monument
Monument

A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of past events....
 in the business district of La Défense
La Défense

La D?fense is a major business district for the Communes of France of Paris, bordering Neuilly-sur-Seine, west of the city itself. It is centered in an oval freeway loop straddling the Hauts-de-Seine departments of France commune in France of Nanterre, Courbevoie and Puteaux....
 to the west of Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
. It is usually known as the Arche de la Défense or simply as La Grande Arche.

tional design competition was launched at the initiative of French president François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand

Fran?ois Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, elected as representative of the French Socialist Party ....
.






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Grande Arche De La Defense
The Grande Arche de la Fraternité is a monument
Monument

A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of past events....
 in the business district of La Défense
La Défense

La D?fense is a major business district for the Communes of France of Paris, bordering Neuilly-sur-Seine, west of the city itself. It is centered in an oval freeway loop straddling the Hauts-de-Seine departments of France commune in France of Nanterre, Courbevoie and Puteaux....
 to the west of Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
. It is usually known as the Arche de la Défense or simply as La Grande Arche.

Design and construction

A national design competition was launched at the initiative of French president François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand

Fran?ois Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, elected as representative of the French Socialist Party ....
. Danish
Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries....
 architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen
Johann Otto von Spreckelsen

Johann Otto von Spreckelsen was a Denmark architect.He studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in Copenhagen, and later served as director up to his death....
 (1929–1987) designed the winning entry to be a 20th century version of the Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe is a monument in Paris, France that stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, also known as the Place de l'?toile....
: a monument to humanity and humanitarian ideals rather than military victories. The construction of the monument, which was undertaken, began in 1982. After Spreckelsen's death in 1987, his associate, French architect Paul Andreu
Paul Andreu

Paul Andreu is a renowned France architect. He is best known for having planned numerous airports worldwide, notably Ninoy Aquino International Airport , Soekarno-Hatta International Airport , Shanghai Pudong International Airport Abu Dhabi International Airport, Dubai International Airport, Cairo International Airport, Brunei International...
, completed the work in 1989/90.

The Arche is almost a perfect cube (width: 108m, height: 110m, depth: 112m; it has been suggested that the structure looks like a four-dimensional
Fourth dimension

In physics and mathematics, a vector of n real number can be understood as a Coordinate system in an n-dimensional Euclidean space. When n = 4, the set of all such locations is called 4-dimensional Euclidean space....
 hypercube
Hypercube

In geometry, a hypercube is an n-dimensional analogue of a Square and a cube . It is a Closed set, Compact space, Convex set figure whose 1-skeleton consists of groups of opposite parallel line segments aligned in each of the space's dimensions, at right angles to each other and of the same length....
 (a tesseract
Tesseract

In geometry, the tesseract, also called an 8-cell or regular octachoron, is the Fourth dimension analog of the cube. The tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square ....
) projected onto the three-dimensional world. It has a prestressed concrete
Prestressed concrete

Prestressed concrete is a method for overcoming the concrete's natural weakness in tension . It can be used to produce beam s, floors or bridges with a longer Span than is practical with ordinary reinforced concrete....
 frame covered with glass
Glass

Glass generally refers to a Hardness, brittle, transparency amorphous solid, such as that used for windows, many Glass Bottles, or eyewear, including, but not limited to, soda-lime glass, borosilicate glass, acrylic glass, sugar glass, Muscovite , or aluminium oxynitride....
 and Carrara
Carrara

Carrara is a city in the province of Massa-Carrara , famous for the white or blue-gray marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione river, some 100 km west-northwest of Florence....
 marble
Marble

Marble is a nonfoliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite . It is extensively used for Marble sculpture, as a architecture material, and in many other applications....
 from Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 and was built by the French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 civil engineering company Bouygues
Bouygues

Bouygues is a France industrial group listed on Euronext exchange and is a blue chip in the CAC 40 stock market index. The company was founded in 1952 by Francis Bouygues and since 1989 has been led by his son Martin Bouygues....
.

Defensedusk
The nearly-completed Arche was inaugurated in July 1989, with grand military parades that marked the bicentenary of the French revolution
French Revolution

The French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudalism for the aristocracy and Roman Catholic Church clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on Age of Enlightenment principles of cit...
. It completed the line of monuments that forms the Axe historique
Axe historique

The Axe historique is a line of monuments, buildings and thoroughfares that extends from the centre of Paris, France, to the west. It is also known as the "Voie Triomphale" ....
 running through Paris. The Arche is turned at an angle of 6.33° on this axis however, a peculiarity which has been explained by several theories. In particular, the architect is said to have wanted to emphasise the depth of the monument, while the specific angle was chosen to create symmetry with the similarly-skewed Louvre
Louvre

The Louvre Museum , located in Paris, is a historic monument, and a national museum of France. It is a central landmark, located on the Rive Droite of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement of Paris ....
 at the other end of the Axe. However, it seems the most important reason was mundanely technical. With a métro
Paris Métro

The Paris M?tro or M?tropolitain is the rapid transit system in Paris. It is a symbol of the city, notable for its station architecture, influenced by Art Nouveau....
 station, an RER
RER

The RER is a rapid transit system in France serving Paris and its suburbs. The RER is an integration of a modern city-centre subway and a pre-existing set of regional rail lines....
 station, and a motorway all situated directly underneath the Arche, the angle was the only way to accommodate the structure's giant foundations.

In addition, the Arche is placed so that it forms a secondary axe (axis) with the two highest buildings in Paris, the Tour Eiffel
Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is an Puddle iron tower built on the Champ de Mars beside the Seine River in Paris. The tower has become a global Cultural icon of France and is one of the most recognizable structures in the world....
 and the Tour Montparnasse
Tour Montparnasse

Tour Maine-Montparnasse , also commonly named Tour Montparnasse, is a 210-meter tall office skyscraper located in Paris, France, in the area of Montparnasse....
.

The two sides of the Arche house government offices. The roof section, exploited by Stephane Cherki, is an exhibition centre. The vertical structure visible in the photograph is the lift scaffolding. Impressive views of Paris are to be had from the lifts taking visitors to the roof.

See also

  • List of tallest buildings and structures in the Paris region


External links

  • (French and English)
  • (in French)