Altaplana, world of Francois Schuiten and Benoit Peeters

the impossible & infinite encyclopedia of the world created by Schuiten & Peeters

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Arcades

Parisian arcades began to be constructed around the beginning of the nineteenth century and were sometimes destroyed as a result of Baron Haussmann's renovation of Paris during the Second French Empire (ca. 18501870). Walter Benjamin linked them to the city's distinctive street life and saw them as providing one of the habitats of the Flâneur (i.e., strolling in a locale to experience it) 1).

Walter Benjamin is quoted twice from his book Paris, capital of the 19th century, in Revoir Paris about these arcades: 2).

Des deux côtes du passage qui reçoit sa lumière d'en haut, s'alignent les magasins les plus élégants, de sorte qu'un chaland peut trouver tout ce dont il a besoin… Lorsque' éclatent de soudaines averses, ces passages sont le refuge de tous les promeneurs surpris auxquels ils offrent une promenade assurée.

and

Le passage n'est que la rue lascive du commerce, propre seulement a éveiller les désirs.

Some of these Parisian arcades are mentioned by Kârinh in Revoir Paris: