To Seek the Oblique

WHEN THE ARAB nations proclaimed a global oil embargo in 1973, exponentially increasing petroleum prices on the world market, the French government faced a crisis and a dilemma. Lacking indigenous reserves, France was compelled to consider alternative energy sources. The most viable contender was nuclear power, but the French public didn’t want it.

The French national power company, Électricité de France, tried at first to impress people with numbers. The citizens were unmoved, and thousands of French scientists rallied against the nuclear option. However the power company had another means of persuasion. When reasoning failed, EDF brought in an avant-garde architect.

The architect selected to reenergize France had few obvious qualifications. Claude Parent had a classical beaux-arts training that he’d repudiated in order to design buildings lacking horizontal and vertical planes. Few of his structures had actually been erected. But after the French national protests of 1968, when the architectural profession was radically politicized and the cultural elite were politically opposed