André-Citroën Park

On March 15, 1985, the City of Paris launched an international ideas competition for the development of the André-Citroën Park project, open to architects and landscape architects who were nationals of the then European Economic Community. The first phase of the competition consisted of a selection based on submitted dossiers. Gilles Clément entered the competition with architect Patrick Berger.
In December of the same year, they were awarded first prize ex æquo with the team made up of architects Jean-Paul Viguier and Jean-François Jodry and landscape architect Alain Provost.

For Gilles Clément, the realization of the André-Citroën Park marked a major turning point in two respects: first, because it involved participation in a large-scale project in the city of Paris, with all the international visibility that this entailed; and second, because it allowed him to put his theory of the Garden in Motion into practice within a public space of such magnitude.

However, reconciling his own vision with that of the members of the other winning team proved far from easy. Moreover, Gilles Clément’s personality and way of working clashed with the administrative procedures inherent to a major public works project. All of this generated tensions both with his project colleagues and with the municipal authorities.

In the end, this lengthy process (1985–1992) turned out to be a complex journey. The drawings and texts in his notebooks from that period reveal the intensity with which Gilles Clément approached this ambitious project, but they also reflect the fatigue and discouragement that overcame him during the final stages of the park’s realization.

Document submitted for the first phase of the international ideas competition for André-Citroën Park in Paris. Typewritten text and drawings on paper. 1985.
Plans of the White Garden, part of André-Citroën Park in Paris. Black-and-white copy and redrawn copy with color paint. 1987.
Initial sketches for the Garden in Motion in the central area of André-Citroën Park in Paris. Color paintings on tracing paper. 1986.
Plans of the series of gardens at André-Citroën Park in Paris. Drawings on paper. 1988.
Color photographs of André-Citroën Park in Paris. 2018.