The Parc de la Villette is the third-largest park in Paris, in area, located at the northeastern edge of the city in the 19th arrondissement. The park houses one of the largest concentrations of cultural venues in Paris, including the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (City of Science and Industry, Europe's largest science museum), three major concert venues, and the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris.
Parc de la Villette is served by Paris Métro stations Corentin Cariou on Line 7 and Porte de Pantin on Line 5.
The park was designed by Bernard Tschumi, a French architect of Swiss origin, who built it from 1984 to 1987 in partnership with Colin Fournier, on the site of the huge Parisian abattoirs (slaughterhouses) and the national wholesale meat market, as part of an urban redevelopment project. The slaughterhouses, built in 1867 on the instructions of Napoléon III, had been cleared away and relocated in 1974. Tschumi won a major design competition in 1982–83 for the park, and he sought the opinions of the deconstructionist philosopher Jacques Derrida in the preparation of his design proposal.
Since the creation of the park, museums, concert halls, and theatres have been designed by several noted contemporary architects, including Christian de Portzamparc, Adrien Fainsilber, Philippe Chaix, Jean-Paul Morel, Gérard Chamayou, on to Mr. Tschumi.
The park houses museums, concert halls, live performance stages, and theatres, as well as playgrounds for children, and thirty-five architectural follies. These include:
Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (City of Science and Industry), the largest science museum in Europe; also home of Vill'Up, a shopping centre opened in November 2016 with the world largest indoor pulsed air free fall flight simulator of 14 m high and several cinemas (IMAX, 4DX and dynamic);
La Géode, an IMAX theatre inside of a diameter geodesic dome;
Cité de la musique (City of Music), a museum of historical musical instruments with a concert hall, also home of the Conservatoire de Paris;
Philharmonie de Paris, a new symphony hall with 2,400 seats for orchestral works, jazz, and world music designed by Jean Nouvel, opened since January 2015.