Thread by @createstreets

Why does utility preclude beauty? By Paris

A market ... (Les Halles)...

... a Parisian street kiosk ...

... a Parisian water fountain ... (don’t even google the new London ones, it’s too soul-sapping)

... even the water tower at Montmartre is a thing to delight in for heaven’s sake.

This predates Haussmann (it’s from 1835) & kept it’s role until 1927. It now houses a not-for-profit. Good buildings get recycled. #DeepGreen

Of course poor Les Halles was foolishly demolished in 1971 to make way for a not very popular mush, in turn extensively remodelled in 2018 after less than 50 years. ...

Here’s the wrecking ball

Rather more happily they were beautifully reconstructed in CGI for the beautiful film, Un long dimanche de fiançailles. Though here’s only image we can find

Here’s a street facing a park. The Rue de Rivoli, the first of Haussmann’s boulevards- completed in 1855.

Haussmann (unlike too many ostrich-like designers who trot out tired mantras about buildings not mattering) understood that facades matter to the quality of the street

That’s why there were stipulations for new streets on height (up to 5 storeys below the cornice line & 2 tucked into the mansard), balconies, ornaments & the requirement to use the lovely creamy Lutetian limestone

So Paris is a city whose modern inception challenges many modern assumptions

1) Lots of rules if you like your markets free
2) A concern for beauty&detail if you like your buildings wearisomely honest
3) A more than slightly uncomfortable use of power if you like liberty (we do)

But one thing is certain.

Haussmann was asked to create beauty &he &his team succeeded by coding for variety in a pattern, durable materials, complexity &composure, innovation within a tradition -above all by creating beauty in small everyday things for everybody

We should too