Antoine Grumbach
Nine months have passed since French President Nicolas Sarkovsky’s Ministry of Culture summoned ten teams of renowned architects and planners to create Le Grand Paris. Last week their ideas were presented; tomorrow (Mar 17th) there will be a public debate open on the subject at the Théâtre national de Chaillot. Following that, an exhibition begins next month at the Cité de l’architecture, and runs through until November.
There is little I like better than a stellar, reach-for-the-stars city plan, especially one that comes with sensational visuals and artist renditions. Granted, I’d be wary if quite a few of these became anything more solid than renditions. There’s a lot of information out on this topic now and it while all this grandiose creative wonder is nice, it’s unnecessary. The issue seems to basically lie within the outskirts of the city, that beyond the Parisian centre the city is deemed unsatisfactory.
Roger Stirk Harbour Partners
Roger Stirk Harbour Partners
The Guardian says:
The task is herculean, the mission quasi-impossible, but the challenge absolutely irresistible for any ambitious architect.
From the Telegraph
Many thought that Mr Sarkozy would follow his predecessors’ lead and bequeath one or two magnificent monuments, such as François Mitterrand’s Louvre pyramid, Georges Pompidou’s Centre or Jacques Chirac’s Quai Branly museum.
However, the president has set his sights much higher, asking the architects to re-imagine the entire city and its surroundings with concrete proposals but “the absolute freedom to dream”.
One crucial aim is to end the isolation of central Paris, with its two million inhabitants, which is currently cut off from the six million living in suburbs just outside its ring road, known as “le périphérique”.
As Rogers, the London-based co-designer of the Pompidou centre, observed: “I know no other big city where the heart is so detached from its arms and legs”.
Atelier Castro Denissof Casi
I’ve still visited Paris all of two times, so many of the local area references unfortunately shimmy over my head.
There’s quite a number of really really great articles concerning the plan actually, and also one about Paris planning from a 1987 edition of The New York Times here. I just want to quote the entire four pages. 😀
In France, the physical form of the city itself is an essential part of the national patrimony, and is understood as such by people at almost every level of cultural sophistication. It is not that the city cannot be changed, for it has changed and evolved throughout all of its history. It is that physical change is not taken lightly in Paris, by anyone from the head of state to the man on the street. To the former, physical change is a way of leaving a mark on history – but to the latter, it is the alteration of a very personal possession. Americans do not view the centers of their cities with the sense of possession they feel for their own backyards. But Parisians, with their long and deep commitment to the idea that the city is in the most profound sense a public place, feel that Paris is very much their own possession.
From AFP:
The challenge for the 10 teams was imagining a European metropolis in 30 years time that would be the world’s first “post-Kyoto” green urban centre and whose borders would extend beyond the city’s current two-million residents.
After nine months of work, the architects have come up with a diagnosis on what ails Paris: its grimy suburbs are not only an eyesore, but an affront to urban living, far removed from shops, workplaces and Paris city centre.
Unlike London which has around eight million people in the city and its suburbs, Paris is home to just two million citizens while at least six million more are scattered across nearby suburbs under separate local governments.
“We need to plant some beauty where there it is now mostly ugliness,” said Roland Castro […]
After the Pompidou, can Rogers transform the secret, shabby, divided side of Paris? – The Guardian
Why Sarkozy’s Paris doesn’t cut the mustard – Architects Journal
.. and a slideshow gallery at Le Figaro.
worldgoestotown.wordpress.com 