“(De)racinate: The Workers’ House at the Place de la Bastille, Paris” in Open City: Existential Urbanity. Edited by Diane Lewis, Daniel Meridor, and Mathew Hitscherich. Artbook / D.A.P. 2015.

This project was produced as part of the fourth-year urban design curriculum at The Cooper Union, and examines the historical site of the Place de La Bastille in Paris. The location was once occupied by the Bastille Prison, which was destroyed during the storming of the Bastille in 1789, a pivotal event during the onset of the French Revolution. The existing architectural interventions at the site employ commemoration as their program, neglecting the storming of the Bastille as a program-generating event. The project draws inspiration from site morphology drawings, revealing a connection between the ancient wall of Paris and the contemporary place condition. Geological and urban elements, such as the river basin, old wall, July Column, street armature, buildings, and metro, are recomposed to stage a civic condition. The project proposes the construction of the Workers' House, a civic institution for the workers of Paris, as a re-reading of the storming of the Bastille to generate a new program for a civic institution in the city. This project offers a new reading of the Place de La Bastille and highlights the potential of architectural elements to create a civic condition by blending program, structure, and composition.