The physical layout of Paris is an archive of state power, revolution, and capital accumulation. We document the built environment not as aesthetic background, but as a record of political will.
The Front de Seine development (15th arrondissement) represents the high-water mark of 1970s vertical urbanism. Designed to segregate pedestrian traffic on elevated slabs from vehicular traffic below, the system ultimately created wind-swept, hostile microclimates while degrading ground-level commerce. A post-mortem of urban optimism.
Read Case StudyConstructed between 1852 and 1869, the 32km circular railway lost its utility with the advent of the Metro. Today, its piecemeal conversion into linear parks represents a battleground between ecological preservationists and municipal development pressures.
Between 1853 and 1870, Georges-Eugène Haussmann demolished 19,730 historic buildings and constructed 34,000 new ones.