More than a year after announcing the design of a “manifesto for a new Parisian aesthetic”, and six months after promising to remove “useless” and “unsightly” furniture, the City of Paris will present this Tuesday, January 18 its “new doctrine for the development of public space”. Several development measures will be unveiled.
“In November 2020, Emmanuel Grégoire, the first deputy mayor of Paris, launched the development of a “Manifesto for beauty” detailing a new methodology for the development of Parisian public space.
This Tuesday, the fruit of this work, as well as several development measures, will be unveiled”, thus communicated the Parisian municipality.
She explains that “structuring a resource document […] is essential to continue adapting the City to contemporary challenges while respecting its identity”.
A “reference charter for public action”
On Sunday, the Parisian elected official signed a column in the JDD on this subject, in which he assures that the capital “must be transformed today in order to face the climate emergency”.
“New modes of travel, the need for nature in the city, the diversity of those who live in or visit Paris lead to necessary changes,” he explains, revealing the beginnings of his project, which provides – in a first step – to “define a reference charter for public action in all areas (roads, green spaces, street furniture, etc.”).
Already in July, the first deputy mayor of Paris in charge of town planning and architecture had announced 8 concrete measures, with immediate effect, thus intending to come and “correct certain things” which deserved to be, according to him.
He had notably announced that the City was going to “remove useless furniture” whose use would thus have been deemed “obsolete” or even the “removal of unsightly furniture”, in the forefront of which the mushroom-shaped seats installed near the bus shelters.
“How to ensure harmony between heritage loyalty and ecological transition? We must learn to compose a new story while preserving this common grammar, ”says the first deputy. Ultimately, this “Manifesto for Beauty” will be presented in four volumes by spring. According to Emmanuel Grégoire, he “will define the vision of the transformation of Paris in the light of the challenges of ecological transition and a practical guide for its implementation”.
An expected position, while the #SaccageParis movement does not disarm on social networks, and that “the beauty of the Parisian landscape” is, as the municipal majority itself underlines “a crucial issue for the influence of Paris” . A “contemporary challenge”, when the eyes of the whole world will be turned towards the capital and its outskirts, during the organization of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the Ile-de-France region in barely two and a half years.