Le front de Seine...(24/11)

(sources: huit mois d'enquête pour venir à bout du Paris futur, Paris Match, 1967 )
Finally this was the first lecture I attended in Paris. I was thinking of taking some classes when I first arrived in Paris, but because of the schedule of work and the nature & opening of courses, there has never been a chance for me...not until this evening.I feel like going back to my University life again.
This is 'le cours de la Ville de Paris', an overview with topical interest about the architecture of the urban Paris. Some flashback of the vision of architecture at my adolescence. I was thinking of being an architect, a designer to the habitat we live in, and this was as normal as a wonderful dream a young man should have had. The course discusses whether Paris is a 'capital of architecture', and while it is contentious to come up with a conclusion, each session of the course looks into a project or a development of the capital in the last century. Tonight it was about 'le front de Seine'. The project was quite a star in the late 50's in Paris. At the beginning, it was the idea of Raymond Lopez and Michel Holley that lined out a sketch of how the new bank of Paris would become. Lopez was actually the chief for 'pavillon de l'architecture de l'exposition universelle' in 1937. The complex of the 'high-rise' structure on the 'plaine de Grenelles' would offer a fresh skyline of the city centre and provide additional space to handle the changing social condition in the post-war era in the city. Indeed, the piece of land was never the heart of the city centre in the early 19th century. Since the late 19th century, the urban agglomeration provided a convenient landscape within the city for substantial industrial development.

The concept of the complex would be a tri-level spatial distribution ('la grande dalle', 'le parvis' et 'le belvédère') for the habitants with respect of the activity of circulation, working space as well as living area. The French government used to be a preservative body and the history and the culture of Parisian remain as always a high priority of respect in decisions of urban renewal and city preservation. However, the intensive development of the city centre called for an exemption of IGH regulation ('la réglementation des immeubles de grande hauteur'). A set of high towers was believed to be erected along the Seine.
The very interesting thing for the project was the management of transition. It took quite some time to get rid of the existing establishment of factories including the industrial set up of Citroën at the site. With a very short and tight development period for the new project, the initial work was carried out at the same time of the demolition work within the site. Old photos taken during the development and the development sketch plan are both sources of information for the development of the new concept in town. The same applied to other tower structure in Paris such as the Tours Montparnasse and La Défense. Greening exercise is a concern within the space of the project and this is an approach to vegetation and urban planning during the era. The project was modified under various stage of development and the latest residential tower was constructed in the 90's. Being a project which lasted for a decades, there is some insight of how urban renewal is functioned in Paris.
Some other examples of its kind would be Les Halles and La Villette in Paris centre, or some rehabilitation work I encountered recently like Les Abattoirs in Toulouse and La Vallee de Durolle at Thiers.