LOUVRE PYRAMID

                                                                          LOUVRE PYRAMID (28550) by HA Studio

Designer: David Huynh

Photography: David Huynh

HA Studio @huynh_arch_studio

This Louvre Pyramid Architecture set was constructed with approximately 282 Lego pieces. The Louvre Pyramid (Pyramide du Louvre) is a large glass and metal pyramid designed by Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei, surrounded by three smaller pyramids, in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon) of the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) in Paris. The large pyramid serves as the main entrance to the Louvre Museum. Completed in 1989, it has become a landmark of the city of Paris.

Commissioned by the President of France, François Mitterrand, in 1984, it was designed by the architect I. M. Pei. The structure, which was constructed entirely with glass segments and metal poles, reaches a height of 21.6 meters (71 ft). Its square base has sides of 34 meters (112 ft) and a base surface area of 1,000 square meters (11,000 sq ft). It consists of 603 rhombus-shaped and 70 triangular glass segments. The pyramid structure was engineered by Nicolet Chartrand Knoll Ltd. of Montreal (Pyramid Structure / Design Consultant) and Rice Francis Ritchie of Paris (Pyramid Structure / Construction Phase).

Louvre Pyramid inverted

The pyramid and the underground lobby beneath it were created because of a series of problems with the Louvre's original main entrance, which could no longer handle the enormous number of visitors on an everyday basis. Visitors entering through the pyramid descend into the spacious lobby then ascend into the main Louvre buildings.

It has been claimed by some that the glass panes in the Louvre Pyramid number exactly 666, "the number of the beast", often associated with Satan. Dominique Stezepfandt's book François Mitterrand, Grand Architect de l'Univers declares that "the pyramid is dedicated to a power described as the Beast in the Book of Revelation (...) The entire structure is based on the number 6."

The story of the 666 panes originated in the 1980s when the official brochure published during construction did indeed cite this number (even twice, though a few pages earlier the total number of panes was given as 672 instead). The number 666 was also mentioned in various newspapers. The Louvre museum, however, states that the finished pyramid contains 673 glass panes (603 rhombi and 70 triangles). A higher figure was obtained by David A. Shugarts, who reports that the pyramid contains 689 pieces of glass. Shugarts obtained the figure from the Pei's offices.

H.A Studio (H.A 創作室), (as known as V.Boi Design Studio) is a small studio where specializes in the design and development of architectural models and as well as the re-design of famous icon landmark buildings, houses, and skylines in the world with small scales by Lego bricks. I always love architecture and Lego. As a designer, I'd like to bring whole historical and cultural knowledge in architecture, and life into the Lego world for all ages in order to achieve the term "Play & Learn."

The Louvre Pyramid (Lego)measures:
h (height) = 2.05 inches/ 52.07 mm
l (length) = 6.75 inches/ 171.45 mm
w(width) = 5.5 inches/ 139.7 mm

The urban legend of 666 panes

It has been claimed by some that the glass panes in the Louvre Pyramid number exactly 666, "the number of the beast", often associated with Satan. Dominique Stezepfandt's book François Mitterrand, Grand Architect de l' Univers declares that "the pyramid is dedicated to a power described as the Beast in the Book of Revelation (...) The entire structure is based on the number 6."

The story of the 666 panes originated in the 1980s when the official brochure published during construction did indeed cite this number (even twice, though a few pages earlier the total number of panes was given as 672 instead). The number 666 was also mentioned in various newspapers. The Louvre museum, however, states that the finished pyramid contains 673 glass panes (603 rhombi and 70 triangles). A higher figure was obtained by David A. Shugarts, who reports that the pyramid contains 689 pieces of glass. Shugarts obtained the figure from the Pei's offices.

Elementary arithmetic allows for easy counting of the panes: each of the three sides of the pyramid without an entrance has 18 triangular panes and 17 rows of rhombic ones arranged in a triangle, thus giving ${\displaystyle \textstyle {\frac {17\cdot (17+1)}{2}}=153}$ rhombic panes (171 panes total). The side with the entrance has 11 panes fewer (9 rhombic, 2 triangular), so the whole pyramid consists of ${\displaystyle 4\cdot 153-9=603}$ rhombi and ${\displaystyle 4\cdot 18-2=70}$ triangles, 673 panes total.

The myth resurfaced in 2003 when Dan Brown incorporated it in his best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, in which the protagonist reflects that "this pyramid, at President Mitterrand's explicit demand, had been constructed of exactly 666 panes of glass — a bizarre request that had always been a hot topic among conspiracy buffs who claimed 666 was the number of Satan. However, David A. Shugarts reports that according to a spokeswoman of the offices of Pei, the French President never specified the number of panes to be used in the pyramid. Noting how the 666 rumor circulated in some French newspapers in the mid-1980s, she commented: "If you only found those old articles and didn't do any deeper fact-checking, and were extremely credulous, you might believe the 666 story.

I. M Pei, who was revered as one of the last great modernist architects, has died, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners confirmed. He was 102 years old.

Although he worked mostly in the United States, Pei will always be remembered for a European project: his redevelopment of the Louvre Museum in Paris 🇫🇷 in the 1980s.

Visit at 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/obituaries/im-pei-dead.html