Grande Arche de la Fraternite
A modern day replica of the Arc de Triomphe, The Arche is a monument in the business district of La Defense to the west of Paris. It is usually known as the Arche de la Defense or simply as La Grande Arche.
The Grande Arche is the vision of Danish architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen, who designed the monument to be a 20th century version of the Arc de Triomphe. However the Arche de la Defence is dedicated to humanity and humanitarian ideals rather than military victories. The construction of the monument began in 1982. After Spreckelsen’s death in 1987, his associate, French architect Paul Andreu, completed the work in 1990.
The Arche is almost a perfect cube. It has been suggested that the structure looks like a tesseract (a four-dimensional hypercube) projected onto the three-dimensional world. It completed the line of monuments that forms the Historic Axis running through Paris. In addition, the Arche is placed so that it forms a secondary axis with the two highest buildings in Paris, the Tour Eiffel and the Tour Montparnasse.
The two sides of the Arche house government offices. The roof section, exploited by Stephane Cherki, is an exhibition center. 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.