Splicetoday

Pop Culture
Mar 13, 2009, 09:58AM

Overhauling Paris

"Nicolas Sarkozy wants to answer the critics who call him a cultural philistine by plunging into his new love for architecture and creating a Greater Paris that would be world's most environmentally friendly and boldly designed metropolis."

Time will tell:

Mike Davies, director of the project, said: "The train lines going into Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est are currently canyons of void." He proposed creating "a continuous green space, a green network" miles long that would link the centre of Paris to its deprived north-eastern outskirts. Underneath it, a separate, hidden layer would contain the mechanics of renewable technologies aimed at launching Paris into a low carbon future.

The Rogers proposals also call for state intervention to completely overhaul areas such as Clichy-sous-Bois, which exploded in urban riots in 2005. Davies described the high-rises as "separate blocks in space", plonked down in isolation with no identity, city fabric, or village life around them.

"The great unwritten and unsaid is that residents tend to be similar ethnic origin. It's not a mixed system," he said. "Monoculture is one of Paris's biggest problems."

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