Bande a Part by Angela Khermouch

bande Ă part

Angela Khermouch

bande Ă part Angela Khermouch

002 : Introduction

Bande à Part

Fieldwork

Architects are perpetually in-between. Professionally, the architect’s work begins once a client decides there’s a need, but also precedes the act of construction. Disciplinarily, an architect makes material sense of the immaterial, translating the hidden patterns of cultural logic (symbolic, political, pragmatic, economic) into a visible, tangible and operational construct. So, architects are a peculiar band of producers: shifting between observation and projection, between instrumental possibilities and operational realities, between the remote space of the atelier, where maps become plans and models are materials, and the immediate site, where the culmination of work will be evaluated physically and socially.

Fieldwork is an integral part of the pedagogy. In the first, sense, it’s about insitu activity. Students have the opportunity to experience important buildings and urban patterns in a dynamic physical and cultural continuum. Because students can reinforce theoretical positions with intuitive sensations, they develop a resilient memory and richer understanding. Students learn to recognize meaningful conditions, and record observations upon which other work will be based. Because the field is always in flux, it exposes students to unfamiliar patterns, tests the potency of their ideas, and challenges their ability to translate (into models) for the arena of work. We indulge like tourists, but operate like ethnographers. We immerse in the field as an aid to seeing, but also as a laboratory and instrument of production.

The Paris Program offers capable students a discrete chance to develop a sense of larger implications, to try on existing approaches to contemporary questions, and to have a glimpse of what it could mean develop their own approach to practice, before returning to the final years of University.

Fieldwork is also an exploration of the discipline. Physically and pedagogically, our atelier is a mixing chamber which encourages students to explore connections between complementary disciplines within the field of architecture: history, urbanism, technique, design. Students may write history to support studio speculation, or use models and drawings as tools of historical analysis. They may refine drawing or modeling techniques as tactics for understanding and speculation, researching the social, cultural or scientific history, or speculate on adapting a technique for a totally new purpose. Students understand and measure the city in various ways, but also use the city to measure the relevance of ideas. So, the design studio becomes a feedback mechanism: the testing ground for speculative activity which allows us to evaluate the viability of results againt contemporary questions.

003 : Introduction

Students of architecture are also inbetween; suspended: practicing to practice. They are expected to interpolate between distinct courses, each pulling in a divergent direction. Within this framework, they must also consider their own values, before entering a global landscape of opportunity.

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Architectural Atelier

Building as Model

The design atelier explores architecture within an urban design framework. Its the testing ground for speculative activity, as students appropriate experiences and techniques from other classes applying them to a specific semester-long project.

Building as Model examines the history of buildings and cities as the autonomous manifestations of ideas. Students are encouraged to explore the writing of history as a creative act, rather than abiding chronological statements of “progress.” Writing may be connected to drawing and modeling as analytic tools. Students compare shifting versions of history, explore the relation between drawing tactics and ideology, evaluate the propagation of ideas as collective rallying points, and examine the influence of parallel cultural movements on paradigm shifts in European architecture, urban design, and urban planning.

As a studio platform, students are asked to understand form, rather than speculate on novel shapes, ex nihilo. Because of our unique situation with Europe, we use the rich field of operation as a basis for investigation. We often focus on types: institutional, infrastructural, intermodal, etc. We sepculate on altering a type, or systematically adjusting its components, to profoundly reorganize its significance. We try to identiy ways that architecture operates as a form of media which has the capacity to extend human capability, influence behavior, and transmit economic or political power.

“Bande à Part” This year projects addressed the Petite Ceinture (PC), a peripheral railway which stitched together independently owned lines, each entering Paris from a different direction. Now mostly abandoned, a 23.5 kilometer band of disengaged territory cuts through the city. A no-man’s land within Paris’ density, and proximate to the Periphérique (a manifest limit) it provokes many contemporary questions, across many scales.

004 : Introduction

For the first 6 weeks of the semester, the students developed urban design proposals. Then they zoomed-in to examine specific sites, exploring the relation between large scale planning principles and its consequence for a localized architectural proposal. Students were asked to develop architectural projects according to the terms of their urban design , but model programs on real precedents. This encouraged students make connections in Europe, and several students engaged institutions, interviewing them as though they were real clients.

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UEx

Developed Surface

Urban Exploration

Developed Surface investigates the significance of techinque. Architectural discourse sometimes struggles to reconcile socio-political agendas with material ones. Whether a result of practice or ideology, focus on one realm often involves suppressing the other. And yet, a constructed building is accountable for both. This course looks at models (2 and 3 dimensional) as operational and instrumental tools which assist an architect to control material and the meaningful. Acting as an advanced seminar and workshop, course sessions juxtapose speculative model making with seminar discussion. Each week, student work is reviewed in direct relation to readings, and short lectures on historical and theoretical precedents in art, architecture, and urban design. Special attention will be paid to intermediate frameworks that architects develop to connect technique to ideology. (Le Modulor, for example).

Urban Exploration exploits the living city as a laboratory, and feedback loop, where reflections on studio work meet the city itself, in a space of free association. Each class begins with an itinerary that introduces the student to distinct territories within Paris, but also harnesses physical immersion as a generator of ideas. The physical nature of the class, and its perpetual state of motion, alters and provokes relationships between conception (or preconceptions) and perception (experience). The class mixes sharp concentration with daydreaming, expectation with surprise, and generates divergent thoughts and possibilities as a complement to studio.

005 : Introduction

In mathematics, the word “development” refers to the process of rolling one surface over another. In architecture, this technique is often deployed to model three-dimensional space on paper – to speculate, regulate, and communicate the ordering of material, construction assemblies, and form. So, “surface” is a convenient subject that connects thinking, drawing and construction. It allows the class to examine activity across many scales (urban patterns, building envelopes, programmatic interior).

RESEARCH: ITALY 27 Jan - Rome / Two “Giants” Baths of Diocletian Trajan Market Piazza Campidoglio Musei Capitolini, Piazza Campidoglio Roman Forum Colloseo Borromini, San Giovanni in Laeterano Thermae Caracalla EUR District Giovani Guerini, Pallazo della Civilita Italiano, (“Colosseo Quadrato”) Museo della Civilita Romano, Palazzo dei Ricevimenti e Congressi

006 : Introduction

28 Jan - Rome / Baroque Surface Spanish Steps Borromini, Collegio de Propoganda Fide Borromini, Sant Andrea delle Fratte (apse) Borromini, Palazzo Barberini (heliocoidal stair) Galleria Barberini Bernini, Santa Carina della Vittoria (St. Theresa in Ecstasy) Borromini, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (ceiling) Pantheon Su 9:00-18:00 / M-Sa 8:30-19:30 Bernini, Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza (corkscrew dome) Borromini, Piazza Navona Borromini, Sant’Agnese in Agone Borromini, Palazzo Spada (forced persp. corridor) Galleria Spada Michelangelo, Palazzo Farnese Borromini, Oratorio dei Fillipini, Giorgetti, San Girolamo della Caritá (Borromini’s pupil) Borromini, Palazzo Falconieri Borromini, Oratorio dei Filippini Borromini and Ferri, San Giovanni dei Fiorentini Bernini, Piazza Pietro (Vatican)

29 Jan - Rome / New Institutions Galleria Borghese Viale delle Belle Arte Piano, Auditorio Parco della Musica Nervi, Pallazeto della Sport Hadid, MAXXI Museum of Art 31 Jan - Venice Murano Island Tour Vanini Glass Factory San Michelle Island Cemetery Rialto Bridge Campo Santa Margherita 01 Feb - Venice Piazza San Marco Palazzo Ducale Carlo Scarpa, Olivetti Showroom Marciana Library Carlo Scarpa, Querini Stampalla Scuola Grande di San Rocco IUAV Toletniti Carlo Scarpa, IAUV Gate / Garden Gallerie dell’Accademia Santa MAria della Salute Campo San Giacomo 02 Feb - Venice Giudecca Island Palladio, Redentore Church San Giorgio Maggiore Island Peggy Guggenheim Collection Ca’Pesaro Museum of Modern Art Campo San Polo (ice skating0

RESEARCH: DENMARK NETHERLANDS SWEDEN 16 Mar - Copenhague Hasløw & Kjærsgaard, Amager Strandpark PLOT (BIG+JDS), Maritim Jugend Center Dorthe Mandrup + B&K, Prism Sports + Kultur Center Dorthe Mandrup, Holmbladsgade Nachbar Kulturhaus Lundgaard & Tranberg, Royal Theater Lundgaard & Tranberg, Tietgen Housing PLOT (JDS+BIG), VM Houses PLOT (JDS+BIG), VM Mountain Houses Ørestad Masterplan Model 17 Mar - Copenhagen Gruntvig’s Church Bispegjerg Cemetery Activity Centers BIG, Linear Park 18 Mar - Sweden

19 Mar - Amsterdam 20 Mar - Day Trip to Rotterdam Wine or Water Restaurant JL Brinkman, Van Nelle Factory Jo Coenen, NAI (Model Storage) Neutlings Reidijk, Sheepvart Café D’Unie Reconstruction Piet Blom, Kubuswonig (Tree Houses) UN Studio, Erasmus Bridge Bolles + Wilson, Erasmus Bridge House OMA, Kunsthall Jo Coenen, NL Architecture Institute 21 Mar - Day Trip to Utrecht / Hilversum / Almere Gerrit Rietveld, Schroderhuis and Apartment Block MVRDV, Villa KBBW (Double House) OMA, Educatorium UN Studio, Erasmussium MVRDV, Basketbar Wiel Arets SANAA, Kunstlinie (Almere)

007 : Introduction

Sigurd Lewerent, Sant Petri (Klippan) Tham Videgard Arkitekten, Museum of Modern Art ( Malmo)

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Tina Bizaca, Angela Khermouch

Dormant

Parisianisms

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Reviving the Fl창neur within the Petite Ceinture

In this project, La Petite Ceinture is seen as an opportunity to revive the Flaneur in the Parisian daily routine. By diverting the publicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s movement towards the center of the city by taking existing elements of the surrounding arrondissements and amplifying, resituating, or distorting them in some way, creating unexpected experiences within La Petite Ceinture.

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La Petite Ceinture is therefore broken up into distinct zones depending on the activity taking place within it, providing a unique atmosphere for each area based on programs that already surround it.

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Angela Khermouch

Le theatre des excentriques

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Resituating puppet theater within an abandoned train line to create new excentric performances

In this project, La Theatre de la Marionnette a Paris, an existing group that promotes puppetry within Paris is provided with a space from which to broadcast Parisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strong puppetry culture. Combining with the existing Monfort Theatre, whose spectacles include everything from optical theater to interpretive dance, this collaboration creates Le Theatre des Excentriques. Situated in the programmatically varied Georges Brassens park located in the 15th arrondissement, along the abandoned Petite Ceinture train line, this location allows an already excentric program to be heightened by its surroundings.

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The organization of the building on the site is such that it allows for moments of unexpected performance, while the integration of learning, production and entertainment in the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s program allows for unique relationships to develop across programatic elements.

036 : AAa Angela Khermouch Process Diagrams

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Process Diagrams

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Process Models

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Process Models

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2705 m2

Gross SF

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2075 m2 210 m2 420 m2

700 m2 2 x 170 m2 4 x 100 m2 100 m2 100 m2 200 m2 35 m2 100 m2 100 m2

Net SF Mech space Other requirements

0 seats) Main Auditorium (300 seats) 0 seats) 2 Small Theaters (240 seats) g Spaces Workshops/Teaching (4) Spaces (4) Dressing Rooms Media Library ing Artists Residency for Traveling Artists Retail Area ce Offices/Meeting Space Cafe

centriques Theatre Des Excentriques

2705 m2

2075 m2 210 m2 420 m2

700 m2 2 x 170 m2 4 x 100 m2 100 m2 100 m2 200 m2 35 m2 100 m2 100 m2

Program Outline

044 : AAa Angela Khermouch Site Model

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Site Model

Puppet Theater Park

La Petite Ceinture

Puppet Theater Locations

Theatre Des Excentriques Program Provider: Theatre de la Marionnette a Paris One of the biggest organizers and promoters for the puppet art form in Paris, the Theatre de la Marionnette a Paris, formed in 1992, organizes events dedicated to the art of puppetry, however they lack their own space.

Theatre de la Marionnette

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Monfort Theatre

Monfort Theatre Usage

Theatre Des Excentriques

Space Provider: Monfort Theatre Situated within the Georges Brassens park, the Theatre Monfort hosts atypical spectacles including everything from interpretive dance to â&#x20AC;&#x153;theatre optique,â&#x20AC;? a similar surreal experience to that of puppetry entertainment. Their space is currently underused during the year.

Clients and Site

George Brassens Park

Georges Brassens Park Excentriques N

Swings Playground

Adults Kids Scent Garden

Both Day Care

Pony Rides

Theatre de Polichinelle

Antique Book Fair

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La Petite Ceinture

Monfort Theatre

Puppetry Precedence

Extracted Elements

OVERLAPPING of many artistic disciplines

RESITUATING performances to create new excentrics

Architecture Application Performing

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Production Learning Support

Petite Ceinture

Theatre de Polichinelle Monfort Theatre

Approach Diagrams

DIRECT VIEWS

In Theaters:

OBLIQUE VIEWS

EXPRESSION of puppetry construction in building systems

In Theaters:

Addition of Oblique Views

In Plan:

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Audience Performance

Exisitng Site Plan

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Site Plan

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Section B-B

Section A-A

Site Sections

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Floor 1 Plan

Floor 0 Plan

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A B C D

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Section A-A

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Section C-C

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1:200 Model

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1:200 Model

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Section Model

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Section Section Model Model

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Section Section Model Model

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Section Model

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Section Model

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Section Model

BaM

Angela Khermouch

Organic layout of early civilizations Mesopotamia, Egyptian civilizations Centralization Recognization of military, communal, or spiritual power

Military Layout of Cities City layout based on protection

Breaking The Wall: City Block Planning Before and After Medieval Limits American Grid System Military Origins Agencies with other objectives

Burnham Plan Used to sell an idea

New York City A system before existing density

Chicago Endless growth opportunities Public policy should not, “...freeze conditions and uses as they stand. That would be death.” Le Corbusier City grid as density problem

Grand Urban Rules Block Width limited by streets, public spaces, parks, etc. (p. 35)

Squaring of Circleville Changing society calls for new system (Grand Urban Rules) Zoning As a way to regulate density

Jane Jacobs Setback Regulations The Death and Life of Great American Cities To aid street lighting

Live-Work movement People should live close to work

l’Eixample Plan Barcelona Central courtyards for light, density relief

Decentrists Thin out and disperse density

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Superblock City block system within a system

Ville Radieuse Removal of density from grid, relocation to specific points

Preliminary paper topic diagram

Rem Koolhaus Delirious New York, exceptions within the city

Orientation of block To maximize sunlight to courtyard Robert Moses Large city projects Highway infrastructure

Urban Renewal Leveling urban blight for new construction

BOULEVARDS AND POWER Baron Haussmannâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Boulevardizing of Paris

In early medieval cities, urban planning as we think of it now was not present as a discipline. In medieval times, the extent of urban planning involved protecting the people within a town from outside attack. For this reason, cities were often centralized around an institution such as a church and surrounded by an outer wall from which the city could be defended. In Paris, this existed in the centralized location of Notre Dame, where the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s coordinate origin lies, and a series of fortifications centered on this point, the earliest of which were built in the 10th and 11th centuries to protect the city of Paris. Between this centralized space and outer wall, however, cities grew much more haphazardly, in many cases as another line of

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While humans have been organizing themselves into cities as a way of exchanging goods, services, ideas, and generally advancing civilization for many years, urban planning as an organizing system for cities was not present medieval and pre-medieval cities, whose urban plans were dictated primarily by the locationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s geography and a need to defend its citizens from outside attacks. Paris in particular was a prime example of this medieval city layout, however, as health conditions worsened due to this seemingly haphazard layout, a more organized approach to city planning was called for. In Paris this manifested with the plan laid out by Baron Haussmann, in which the wide boulevards cutting through the existing fabric of the city were particularly straightforward in their intent as well as powerful in creating a new image for Paris which frightened the Parisians even when elements of the new boulevards spoke to elements of city planning that existed before. The boulevardizing of Paris also created a new image for the Baron himself, rising questions as to how far a human in power can go to change the environment of so many without seeming ruthless and very much inhuman in doing so.

defense so that enemies could not easily navigate the city or know its layout beforehand, as can be seen in Paris’s thick tangle of streets enmeshed in what is known as ‘Old Paris.’ However, as Paris became denser, problems regarding hygiene and traffic emerged that were related back to the way the city was laid out. A preoccupation with poverty and cramped living conditions caused a call for healthy air, running water, social housing and kitchen gardens to evolve. At the same time, technological advancements in communication from the industrial revolution caused a reaction to manage movement systems within towns and cities. As described in Du Camp’s Paris:

Paris, as we find it in the period following the Revolution of 1848, was about to become uninhabitable. Its population had been greatly enlarged and unsettled by the incessant activity of the railroad, and now this population was suffocating in the narrow, tangled, putrid alleyways in which it was forcibly confined.

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As a result, Paris, like many medieval cities, looked to much more regular and spacious layouts giving the chance for “air and men to circulate.” In Paris, this emerged with the election in 1870 of Napoleon III as president for the Republic of France, who decided to modernize Paris after seeing post-industrial revolution London. To head up this new vision of Paris, Napoleon III hired Baron GeorgesEugene Haussmann and together they laid out their plan d’ensemble in which the city was planned as if it was an entire entity, a new approach to city planning that had not been implemented before at this large of a scale. However, this was not a sort of urban planning that had been seen before. What these men intended to do was create a new city from one that already existed, that was well established, and most importantly, had a thoroughly developed fabric that its citizens cherished. In Haussmann’s transformation of the city layout, the most striking feature was a se-

ries of large boulevards that cut straight through this very developed fabric that the people so cherished, or what was known as ‘Old Paris.’ As opined by Haussmann who was also known as the ‘demolition artist’, it was, ‘easier to cut through a pie’s inside than to break into the crust.’ Programmatically, these wide boulevards prioritized circulation, the harmonization between monuments, as well as providing more light and air to the streets. This image of long perspectives down long, straight boulevards ending in city monuments was also seen as ideal to Haussmann, a product of the tendency in the 19th century to elevate technological necessities through artistic ends. Economically, these boulevards also provided certain areas a chance to rejuvenate themselves by replacing unsanitary old buildings with new properties containing much more rent-able space. A primary purpose behind these large boulevards was also one that the medieval city was very familiar with: to protect from attack, only this time, from within. In order to minimize the threat of civil war within Paris, these wide boulevards were created as a way to inhibit the erecting of barricades across the city. These streets also acted as a quick connector between the barracks and the worker’s districts, where the potential uprising would occur. Referred to as “strategic embellishments” by some, these wide, straight boulevards with uniform facades marching down either side came to symbolize an expression of power by the self-proclaimed emperor of the time over the city of Paris and a way of restoring quick order to a city that was known for its capacity to rebel. However, despite all these benefits to the city on levels ranging from health to state, Haussmann’s ‘boulevardizing’ of Paris did not escape verbal attack. While most critics just clung to the remnants of city fabric bulldozed by Haussmann’s implementation of the boulevards, others saw the construction of the boulevards as an immense expression of power, one not to be expressed by one man. In this immense expression of power, the public saw not a man but a power-hungry god, daring to squash the haphazard natural growth of a healthy city with his regular, controlled and picture-perfect sets that he had designed and constructed

Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project. London: Belknap Press, 1999. 123-125. Print. Jones, Colin. Paris: Biography of a City. New York: Viking, 2005. 305. Print.

Among Haussmann’s biggest critics was Le Corbusier who said, “The avenues [Haussmann] cut were entirely arbitrary: they were not based on strict deductions of the science of town planning. The measures he took were were of a financial and military character.” Le Corbusier’s critique of Haussmann’s boulevards were more an expression of disbelief for their ability to provide what Haussmann promised. He too could only see the overpowering, godly manner in which Haussmann sliced through the city. Still others critiqued the large boulevards aesthetically, particularly several groups in the 1880’s that grew out of the conservationist movement that began to emerge

in Paris. These conservationist groups attacked, ‘these new boulevards without turning, without perspectival adventure, implacably straight-lined…which recall some future American Babylon.’ Based in a love for Paris’s older city fabric in which streets constantly turn and change, these conservationists saw only the desire of one man to make his mark on an already thriving city in the long boulevards implemented by Haussmann. Yet, among all this dissent, there were a few Parisians that saw some good in the new Haussmannian Paris. One writer, Jules Simon wrote in Le Galois, “He [Haussmann] demolished some quartiers - some might say entire towns. There were cries that he would bring on the plague; he tolerated such outcries and gave us instead - through his well-considered architectural breakthroughs - air, health, and life.” In this passage, Simon acknowledges the destruction of the old for the improvement of quality of life, something few of Haussmann’s critics at the time were able to accept. How-

During and after the construction of Haussmann’s Boulevards

Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project. London: Belknap Press, 1999. 130. Print. Jones, Colin. Paris: Biography of a City. New York: Viking, 2005. 360. Print.

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for the city. This can be seen in the assessment made by one critic of the changes made by Haussmann: “Haussmann’s urban works are a wholly appropriate representation of the absolute governing principles of the Empire; repression of every individual formation, every organic self-development, fundamental hatred of all individuality.”

ever, Haussmann himself recognizes this in the civilians of his city as can be seen in a later conversation between Napolean III and himself. Haussmann says, “I myself am charged with the double offense of having unduly disturbed the Population of Paris by bouleversant, by ‘boulevardizing,’ almost all the quartiers of the city, and of having allowed it to keep the same profile in the same setting for too long.” Haussmann sees the extensive distress he has caused to the Paris population, however he sees the act of boulevardizing Paris as one the city has been needing for some time and its monumentality as an expression of Paris’s need for a new image as a city and as the people who inhabit it. He was simply a means of providing Paris with this new image.

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It is easier to see now, removed from the initial shock that these large boulevards caused, how they were, and still are, a success in a number of ways. As methods of navigation, the wide boulevards connecting monuments within the city are useful tools for pedestrians and cars alike trying to

orient themselves, especially after emerging from the dense tangle of streets that often flank either side of the boulevard. While the boulevards were unsuccessful in improving road mobility due to the fact that these straight boulevards generally delivered speedy traffic into crossroads where they then became enmeshed in traffic jams, as direct routes across the city of Paris, these boulevards cut down travel time in their directness. Logistically, these boulevards did indeed provide the renewal on a health, infrastructure and economic level that the city of Paris so desperately needed. Most importantly though, these boulevards did a lot to encourage and allow for an image that Paris was already very familiar with: one related to a lively active street life. Many Parisian terms such as the flâneur, the dérive and détournement all relate back to the way a walker experiences the city-strolling through streets, observing the action teeming around him and generally letting the thriving city control his motions and attentions. As a part

Gustave Caillebotte’s painting of the flâneur on a Haussmannian boulevard

Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project. London: Belknap Press, 1999. 132. Print.

of life, an active street life has always been strongly valued by the Parisian people and despite tearing through existing dense and thriving neighborhoods, Haussmann’s boulevards did nothing to destroy the active street life that existed, instead it made it stronger. One obvious reason for this is that the dense, thriving neighborhoods the boulevards cut through still existed on either side of them, feeding into the broad streets a constant stream of pedestrians. Another benefit to the Parisian boulevard’s pedestrian life is the ground floor lining of small shops, cafes, and restaurants that draw people to the street for various needs and desires and provides interest to the passer-by. Lastly, these wide boulevards did not simply provide more room for fastcirculating traffic but for the pedestrians as well. Wide sidewalks line either side of the Haussmannian boulevards, allowing each pedestrian more space as well as space for restaurants, bars and cafes to install outdoor seating year round, or for stores to advertise merchandise that encourage pedestrians to stop, browse or mingle on the already active street.

Works Cited Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project. London: Belknap Press, 1999. Print. Chan Chieng, Diana, ed. Projets Urbains En France = French Urban Strategies. Paris: Le Moniteur, 2002. Print. Jones, Colin. Paris: Biography of a City. New York: Viking, 2005. Print. Lehnerer, Alex. Grand Urban Rules. Rotterdam: Lecturis, 2009. Print. “The L’Enfant and McMillian Plans.” Wash-

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Despite the strong outcry from Parisians against the Haussmannian boulevards for their expression of power by the men who designed them, these boulevards ended up creating for Paris a stronger picture of itself. While the approach to urban planning was new and the improvements the boulevards made on a practical scale, in terms of health, economics and infrastructure worked to renew the city, the new image of Paris that Haussmann envisioned was perhaps not so new at all. At street level, these wide boulevards in fact create the perfect playground for the pedestrian, building off the already thriving existing city fabric and ensuring the people of Paris that the flâneur was once again alive and well.

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Field Conditions: An attempt to exhaust spaces in Paris Ă la Georges Perec