Temporary structures and presentation of national contexts
The national pavilions and the “Rue des Nations”
The “Rue des Nations”: a world’s-worth of architecture in one short street.
For the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878 a long stretch of pavilions created the so-called “Rue des Nations” that was designed to showcase the different national traditions of the French Republic. The façades of the individual buildings, which reproduced the most evocative elements of national architecture, formed a bizarre, eclectic, parade of buildings that reflected French national taste at the time. Although many countries from the Near and Middle East had a presence on the Rue des Nations, many of them were allocated smaller pavilions in areas intended to represent the “East” as a whole. At the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, the Rue des Nations was set up again, this time beside the Seine, between the Invalides and Alma bridges. This model enjoyed great success until the early 20th century.