Paris Skyline Set to Change?
Most Parisians have been terrified of changing the Paris skyline since Le Corbusier set out his proposal to raze the city to the ground and replace it with a series of enormous skyscrapers. However they will be forced to face their fears if the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, succeeds in his plan to overturn the French capital's ban on skyscrapers. At present urban planning regulations dating back to 1977 outlaw any structure over thirty seven metres within the city walls.
Initially developments are envisioned in six places immediately intramuros, which would link the historic centre and the down-at-heel estates of the suburbs. But what is the motivation for this move? And what are the objections to the proposed changes?
Delanoe has always been a strong supporter of updating planning laws to allow high rise buildings, despite the fact that two-thirds of Parisians say that they are opposed to skyscrapers invading their city. The mayor argues that the capital needs to allow the new structures in order to provide the social housing which it desperately needs, and this means using vertical space. The high rise apartment blocks which were built in the Parisian suburbs after the Second World War were widely criticised due to their uniformity, and the lack of opportunities for social contact and integration. Research shows that their current inhabitants feel unhappy and think that their homes are ugly. This can be said to be due, at least in part, to the poor planning and design of the structures and their lack of facilities. However there are examples of high-rise apartment blocks that are architecturally innovative and socially structured in New York and London, which have been built with ecological concerns in mind as well. Nonetheless the French regularly voice their dislike of the gargantuan multi-usage Tour Montparnasse which was the original reason for the 1977 ban on skyscrapers.
It is true that the Tour Montparnasse is an eyesore – a structure in dark glass and steel rising high above the roofs of the sand-coloured, organic Haussmannian buildings which surround it. It is indeed the scale on which Paris is built that makes it such a pleasant city to live in and stroll around. Paris is a horizontal city, traversed by wide boulevards and avenues. It is a city that views exist in – you can see it without having to go to the top of a skyscraper. And this is precisely because there are no skyscrapers, because the Parisians value this unusual characteristic of their city – it has a sense of distance and space which cannot be found in more modern cities.
And then of course there is the capital's famous nickname – the City of Lights. Would it remain thus with high rise buildings filling the sky?
Delanoe acknowledges that his plan goes against popular opinion, but finds one rather important figure in agreement with him; Sarkozy. In fact, it has been said that Delanoe is trying to make his mark on Paris in order to outdo the president, whom he hopes to run against in the 2012 elections. In June Sarkozy launched an initiative for a Greater Paris, asking ten renowned architects to imagine their vision for the French capital for the next twenty years.
The lack of skyscrapers in Paris is in stark contrast to dynamic, modern cities like New York and Berlin that have allowed avant-garde structures to be built in order to regenerate their centres. In total opposition to 'old', historic Paris, are the 'new' cities such as Shanghai, Jeddah or Dubai where new high rise developments pop up with regularity and form the very basis of the city's infrastructure. Jean Nouvel, the French architect who has been commissioned to design a new skyscraper to add to the current collection in the La Défense business district, compared the centre of Paris to a museum. He told the newspaper Le Parisien "Paris is not finished... If vertical buildings can enrich the heart of the capital, why deprive ourselves?"
