Challenges of the Grand Paris
Dominique Perrault
After this period, in 70‘s we moretheless forgot this kind of strategy and we developed another kind of strategy. Especially with Francois Mitterrand, there was a big project - cultural project, long mark project - to create a new attractiveness of cities, not around the cities but into the heart of the cities. Now, with Nicolas Sarkozy and new president Francois Hollande we would like to more or less develop or to re-develop the concept, the vision and the urban substance of the Grand Paris.
It is not a small challenge, because inside the Paris (the historic centre) you have 2,5M inhabitants. Around this, you have moretheless 9-9,5M inhabitants, and around that, the French metropolitan Paris is between 11M and 13M inhabitants. It is a huge and very complex challenge to re-organize connections between people. You have a lot of people in this area totally excluded, disconnected. The main challenge is to create some new conditions in the public transportation to connect people together, but also to connect them through some new infrastructure. Not only the infrastructure in terms of transport, but also infrastructure of university, some other cluster which is very important for intensive urban activities in Paris.
And also, one of the main problems is the housing: social housing, new housing, what kind of housing you have to develop on this territory? It is a very important question because we have no money for the social housing. Or more precisely, we have no current budget to finance investments in this kind of activities.
It is a very important question and in parallel we are also working on the design of this metropolis. Everybody speaks about the Grand Paris. And a lot of people: architects, urban planners, urban landscapers, artists, sociologists, and a lot of engineers are working on the Grand Paris - but on a lot of small territories - like with puzzle. My idea is about what are the possibilities for design. Design for me is drawing: how is it possible to draw this kind of substance? Because it is not the Haussmann's Paris. It is finished. The Haussmann's Paris is the second, now we are working on the third. It is not the same feeling, the same attitude. But this also is very very utopic. I do not know if it is utopic, but it is moretheless a challenge to draw the metropolis.
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