Turning a city of walls into a city for all

Abstract

Throughout history, Paris has always been a city of walls. The differences between the wealthy core and the poor periphery are increasing rapidly. The Boulevard Périphérique, Paris’s concrete ring road, is the spatial and symbolic manifestation of the imbalance between the city and periphery. The ring road works as a mobility bottleneck at the regional scale, while locally it strengthens the perception of urban inequality by complicating access to the resources of the city centre. Transforming this infrastructure element does not involve only spatial and functional restructuring, but also interventions at the social and governance level. This research and design project shows how the redevelopment of the Boulevard Périphérique can contribute to transform its spatial, functional, social and symbolic roles, in order to address the socio-spatial inequality challenges in the metropolitan area of Paris. A strategy for the redevelopment of the ring road is proposed, accompanied by spatial interventions and planning guidelines. The main outcomes are a strategic- and spatial framework that function as a toolbox for the redevelopment project. This toolbox consists of three important components: structural conditions, contextual needs and intervention possibilities.