By Leah Tausan
Haussmann
has gone down in history as one of the most influential urban planners due to
the drastic transformation he led on Medieval Paris to turn it into the global
city it is today. Were his methods too extreme, culturally insensitive and
destructive; and would similar urban renewable be possible in current slum
situations today?
A Brief History
Paris currently is the most
populated city in France, with an estimated 2.2 million occupants and arguably
one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Yet the modern day Paris that we picture today
with its Neoclassical, terrace apartments, expansive parks and wide, straight
boulevards was not always appears so. In 1852 a plebiscite was held after a
period of political unrest that made Napoleon the Third (1808-73) emperor and
gave him a position of supreme power. After emerging victorious from the
Crimean War (1854-56), Napoleon was eager to translate his military success
into architectural success, as well as transform Paris into a global world
power.
This is where Georges-Eugène
Haussmann (1809-91) gets involved. He is appointed by Napoleon as the official
town planner of Paris, with instructions of Urban renewal in the form of a
colour coded map to made Paris a great city. Their vision of Nouveau Paris was
to be vast in extent, bound together by new, straight, wide boulevards, and
dominated by symbols of Napoleon. This unwavering vision for Paris was, in my
opinion, overtly ambitious and slightly destructive, much of medieval Paris
being demolished in the process, but yet without these interventions, modern
Paris would not exist in the same form it does today.
Destruction of Medieval Paris
Historically when boulevards
were constructed as urban reform to enhance efficiency and aesthetics in
existing cities they would use existing streets and use them to link important
monuments such as in Rome. Haussmann’s streets were laid out according to pragmatic
and economic considerations. Hence they destroyed enormous parts of medieval
Paris, having little to no consideration to the previous urban form and
displacing thousands of inhabitants, notably the poor. The boulevards cut
through the dense fabric of medieval Paris and were lined with neoclassical apartments
that had modern facilities like sewerage pipes and gas lines. The apartments
were strictly regulated, with flat, restrained facades and were made out of
stone, which previously was only a building material of the rich. For example
one of the first boulevards he constructed was the boulevard Sebastopol, which
delimits the very densely populated 1st and 2nd
arrondissements from the 3rd and 4th arrondissements. The
boulevard is 1.3 kilometers long and 30 meters wide, at the time vast
extravagant use of space in a city that closely resembled rabbit warrens in its
dense complexity. In order to construct this north-south thoroughfare 40
streets were lost, 2000 buildings demolished 2500 people were relocated.
‘Great
Haussmann plan of late 1853 was not drawn on a blank sheet of paper’ – D. Van
Zanten.
Urban renewal was already
occurring when Haussmann was put solely in charge by Napoleon. Projects such as
the East-West axis down the rue de Rivoli to the Hôtel de Ville. The rebuilding
of the Paris de Justice and the restoration of the Notre-Dame by Viollete le
Duc were already underway. How much of Paris would have developed organically
without the extreme destruction that entailed Haussmann’s plan.
Three problems faced by
Haussmann
As stated by D. Van Zanten Haussmann
had a problem and solution based approach to urban planning, rather then the
imposition of a utopian ideal. The first of his problems was that Napoleon
intended Paris was the capital city and hence the back drop for the sovereign’s
representation. His boulevards managed to highlight and link important national
monuments such as the Arc de Triomphe as well as creating urban thoroughfares and
‘healthy open spaces.’ Monumental
buildings such as the new Opéra house (1861-75) were set at major intersection
between streets and metro connections. The buildings commissioned by Napoleon
were built with the intention of show casing his royal wealth and were built
with the intention of being imposing. Yet they were also placed along new urban centers
of movement and practicality.
Secondly, was the transition of Paris into a new capitalist, industrialist
city; its economic growth sparking population growth. Haussmann managed this
through the annexation of the suburbs to make them the outer arrondissements. Thirdly
there was the slow evaporation of central authority. This was managed through
the arrondissements being governed like little cities separately.
Haussmannisation
What Haussmann managed to
complete in Paris had never been done before to that extent. Hence his ideas of
public health, efficient straight roads and sturdy, medium density apartments
were used in other cities all over the world. An example of Haussmann’s ideals
being used in other areas is the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia,
constructed in 1917. Like the Boulevard de Sébastopol, it is a
scenic boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. His ideals were also adopted and
reinterpreted in a extreme way by the modernist architect Le Corbusier in his plans for cities such as
Ville Contemporaine (1992). Le Corbusier envisioned a modern city out of high-density
skyscrapers ranging form 24-60 stories that were set in green urban space. This
he envisioned as healthy living due to the building form, typology and grid
planning liberating urban space from chaos.
Can the idea of radical urban
renewal be applied to Dharavi?
Recently in the media
I have been compelled by the story of organic urban renewal in the slum of
Dharavi. Dharavi is currently classified as the world’s largest modern slum.
Located near the major city Mumbai it is conveniently connected by a railway
and houses around 1 million occupants. Yet this area is now becoming well known
for its individual struggle out of poverty without the assistance of government
authorities. Collectively as a community of artisans 200 small and medium
entrepreneurs have created names for themselves on Snapdeal, one of the
country’s large online retail marketplaces. Many families work and live
together in small, unhealthy, cramped conditions. Would it be considered
‘playing the hand of god’ to use a Haussmann style approach to improving these
peoples living conditions and lives? Or would it be more beneficial in the long
run to not relocate slums and allow them to grow economically at their own
rate?
References
Ching, D.K Francis, Jarzombek,
Mark, Prakash, Vikramaditya, ‘Global History of Architecture’, New Jersey, John
Wiley & Sons Inc, pp. 670-671.
D. Van Zanten, ‘Haussmann,
Baltard and Municipal Architecture’ in Building Paris: Architectural Institutions
and the Transformation of the French Capital, 1830-1870 Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, 1994 pp. 198-213.
Fazio, Michael W, Marian Moffett, Lawrence
Wodehouse, and Marian Moffett, A World History Of Architecture, Boston,
McGraw-Hill, 2008, pp. 411-420.
Images
All images taken by Leah
Tausan.
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