In need of our own Baron Haussmann

Published : 15 May 2011, 04:39 PM
Updated : 15 May 2011, 04:39 PM

The city of Paris always had a major fascination for me from an early age. Those customary pictures of my parents in front of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc D'Triomphe, it was always a city of Titans for me….no 'gullies', broad boulevards, monuments galore, a city of astronomical delights and also the city of lights, a perfect picture-postcard city.

Later when I chose the thesis option for my graduation, I chose the city of Paris as my subject matter. Going through the historical development and the radial expansion of the metropolis, it dawned on me that Paris, what it is today in terms of its amenities, grandeur, beauty and its axial simplicity, was not the product of a gradual evolution as cities usually do, but imposed, literally by force, by one gentleman by the name of Baron Haussmann, under the patronage of Napoleon III.

The pre-Haussmann Paris seemed to have a lot of commonalities with modern day Dhaka it seemed. Congested, narrow roads, overflowing gutters, rampant water-borne diseases, haphazard markets, no defined boundaries between residential and non-residential usages, and a constant influx of population from the countryside, lured by the prospects of jobs in the emerging industrial units sprouting all over the city. Even in the very limited tourism sector of 19th century Europe, the well-to-do English and the Germans opted for the Greek shores and the Roman ruins. Ravaged by the constant Franco-German wars, Paris was a mess of a city, decrepit buildings falling apart, portrayed adequately by Victor Hugo in 'Les Miserables'.

Elected president of the Republic of France in 1848, Napoleon's nephew became emperor on December 2, 1852, one year after his coup. Under his new name, Napoleon III, he decided to modernise Paris after seeing London, a city transformed by the Industrial Revolution, which offered large public parks and a complete sewer system. He wished to improve the housing conditions of the lower class; in some neighbourhoods, the population density reached numbers of 250,000 people per square mile in conditions of very poor sanitation.

To satisfy his ambitions, the new emperor had a considerable amount of power at his disposal, something his predecessors had lacked. But Napoleon III still had to find a man capable of carrying out a project of such magnitude. He found such a man in Georges Eugene Haussmann, a man of action and rigour, known for being methodical, and he nominated him Prefect of the Seine in 1853. The two men formed an efficient team, the emperor supporting the prefect against his adversaries, and Haussmann showing loyalty in all circumstances, while promoting his own ideas such as a project for Boulevard Saint-Germain.

The period of the return of the monarchy was a preparation for "Haussmannisation", when a survey of the city was made. In 1839 a municipal commission was charged with examining the city centre. This commission concluded that the centre of Paris was obsolescent. At that time the concept of a "sick city" became widely held. The mediaeval centre within the ancient enclosure of Philippe-Auguste aroused general disgust.

In a first step, the state expropriated those owners whose land stood in the way of the renovations. It then demolished the buildings and built new avenues fully equipped with water, natural gas and sewers. Haussmann relied on substantial loans to finance his operations, roughly 50 to 80 million francs a year. The state reimbursed the loans by selling the land, after dividing it in plots, to promoters who had to build according to a set of precise rules. This system allowed the city to devote each year a budget to the renovations twice that of the municipal budget.

Haussmann had the opportunity of working in a legislative and regulatory context that was modified specifically for the renovations. The decree of March 26, 1852 regarding the streets of Paris, passed one year before Haussmann's appointment, established the main judicial tools:
• Expropriation "for purposes of public interest": the city could acquire buildings placed along the avenues to be constructed, whereas earlier it could only acquire the buildings placed directly on the future construction site. This would allow a considerable part of the Île de la Cité to be demolished. After 1860, the regime's more progressive stance made expropriations more difficult.

• Those who owned buildings were required to clean and refresh the facades every ten years.

• The leveling of the streets of Paris, the buildings' alignments and connections to the sewer were regulated.

The authorities intervened at the same time to regulate the dimensions of buildings and even on the aesthetic aspect of their frontages:
• The 1859 regulations for urban planning in Paris increased the maximum height of buildings from 17.55 meters (57.5 ft) to 20 meters (65.6 ft) in streets wider than 20 meters. The roofs needed to still have a 45 degree incline.

• Construction along the new avenues had to comply with a set of rules regarding outside appearance. Neighboring buildings had to have their floors at the same height, and the façades' main lines had to be the same. The use of quarry stone was mandatory along these avenues. Paris started to acquire the features of an immense palace.

The authorities intervened at the same time to regulate the dimensions of buildings and even on the aesthetic aspect of their frontages:
• The 1859 regulations for urban planning in Paris increased the maximum height of buildings from 17.55 meters (57.5 ft) to 20 meters (65.6 ft) in streets wider than 20 meters. The roofs needed to still have a 45 degree incline.

• Construction along the new avenues had to comply with a set of rules regarding outside appearance. Neighboring buildings had to have their floors at the same height, and the façades' main lines had to be the same. The use of quarry stone was mandatory along these avenues. Paris started to acquire the features of an immense palace.

Finally at this period priority was given to the circulation of traffic. Paris suffered, like all the large cities of the period, from the absence of a coherent pattern of urban roads. The construction of the stations in Paris from 1841 onwards was a significant example of this problem. They were all wedged in and had poor links with the city centre. Haussmann cut through the city of Paris, imposing a large network of straight roads and boulevards with wide sidewalks, landscaping, and in those days, parking for the horse drawn carriages on the sides. From an aesthetic point of view, the wide boulevards which were cut responded to a new logic. They are wide and straight to facilitate travel and speed. They were considered more modern at the time because the mediaeval roads were narrow and sinuous. Nevertheless they can be de-humanising if too many are constructed. In Paris, for the most part, a balance was found, and appreciated to this day.

He established three networks for the circulation of traffic: the first (1854-58) and best-known was the great North-South/East West crossing: rue Sebastopol-boulevard St Michel crossed the rue de Rivoli at the place du Châtelet. The centre of the crossing freed the Ile de la Cité (above all to the East) as well as les Halles. The second network(1858-60) allowed the extension of traffic from the centre: work around the future place de la République, la rue de Rome, and around l`Etoile, Chaillot, l`Ecole Militaire and la Montagne Sainte-Genevieve. The third network was made with the aim of linking the "Petite Banlieue" annexed in 1860, with the rest of Paris. It was the beginning of work at the place de l`Opéra (finished in 1878); Belleville was linked to Bercy; the southern routes of the 16th arrondissement were created. Finally, the rue de Rivoli was copied on the left bank by the creation of the boulevard St. Germain.

The aesthetic and monumental aspects were also taken into consideration with the construction of churches (St Augustin and la Trinité), public facilities were decided l`Opéra, the Bibliothèque Nationale (library) and les Halles Baltard (markets). Town Halls for each arrondissement (equivalent to Wards in Dhaka City) were constructed.

He wanted to mark crossroads with a monument. This gave each neighbourhood a distinctive landmark to identify with. In the interests of hygiene, a network for water supply was constructed. The Roman aqueduct method was chosen, which allowed spring water to be brought from afar and distributed to homes. 560 kilometres of drains were also installed. The city was dotted with drinking fountains where any pedestrian could sip palatable drinking water to quench his or her thirst.

The plan to modernise the city dates back to revolutionary times. In 1794, during the French Revolution, a "Commission of Artists" formed a project suggesting the opening of broader avenues in Paris, with a street making a straight line from Place de la Nation to the Louvre. It anticipated the east-west main line and attempted to highlight the public monuments. Napoleon I commissioned the construction of a colossal street along the Jardin des Tuileries, the Rue de Rivoli, that extended under the Second Empire up to the Châtelet and the Rue Saint-Antoine; the new street was better adapted to traffic than the street designed by the Commission of Artists. It also served as the basis for a new legal tool: the servitude d'alignement, which prevented real estate owners from renovating or rebuilding beyond a certain line drawn by the administration.

Between 1854 and 1858, Haussmann took advantage of what was to be the most authoritarian period in Napoleon III's rule to achieve what possibly no other decade could have: transforming the heart of Paris by clearing a gigantic crossing in its center. Because of the construction of the North-South line, from boulevard de Sébastopol to Boulevard Saint-Michel, a number of alleyways and dead-ends were cleared from the map. This line included an important intersection near the Châtelet and the Rue de Rivoli: the Second Empire extended it to the rue Saint-Antoine, a street Napoleon I had drawn alongside the Tuileries.

Some of these axes connected Louis XIV's grand boulevards to those that ran alongside the Farmers General Wall. The Boulevard Haussmann and the Rue La Fayette, partially in place before 1870, guaranteed better access to the Opera neighborhood from the outside districts. The Boulevard Voltaire made it easier to bypass the center from the Place de la Nation. On the Left Bank, as the Southern Boulevards, which go through Place d'Italie, Place Denfert-Rochereau and Montparnasse, were too far from the centre, the idea of another east-west access arose. Haussmann added the Rue des Écoles, designed by Napoléon III to his pet project: the Boulevard Saint-Germain, a Left Bank extension of the Grands Boulevards of the Right Bank.

Napoléon III and Haussmann covered the town with prestigious edifices. Charles Garnier constructed the Opéra Garnier in an eclectic style and Gabriel Davioud designed two symmetric theatres on the Place du Châtelet. L'Hôtel-Dieu, the prison of the Cité (and future police headquarters), and the tribunal of Commerce replaced the medieval districts on the Île de la Cité. Each of the twenty new local government districts (arrondissements) was given a town hall.

They took care to set these monuments in the town by creating vast perspectives. For example the Avenue de l'Opéra offers a great frame for the edifice of the Opera Garnier, while the houses that prevented contemplation of the cathedral of Notre-Dame gave way to a great open space.

Green spaces in Paris were rare. Having visited and enjoyed the beautiful and plentiful London parks, Napoléon III hired engineer Jean-Charles Alphand, Haussmann's future successor, to create expansive parks and green spaces. On the east and west borders of the city, you could find the bois de Boulogne and the bois de Vincennes, respectively. In the enceinte de Thiers, the parc des Buttes-Chaumont, the parc Monceau, and the parc Montsouris offered citizens beautiful scenery and a place to relax and be with nature. Also, in each district squares were built, and trees were planted along avenues.

"Hausmannism", a perfectionist art, wasn't satisfied with tracing new streets and utilities. It also intervened in the aesthetic aspects of the habitable building.

The block is designed as a homogeneous architectural one. The building is not treated as an independent structure, but must make, with the other buildings in its block, if not with all others in the same street or quarter, a unified urban landscape. Unlike the hodgepodge of apartments styles we are accustomed to in Dhaka, Paris has a surprisingly homogeneous look in spite of its diversity and size. His plans were later applied in Brussels, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Antwerp, Dresden, Chicago and Vienna.

His work is admired for the invention of town planning by regulation, which preserved the old city while making it accessible; for the balance found between buildings of the Haussmann type, and the streets, and for the rare balance achieved between state control and private speculation.

It suffices to say that, London is the most 'Hip' capital of Europe, Barcelona is the most avant-guard city of the moment, Rome has its history, but Paris is still the grandest of cities in terms of its layout, communication, overall beauty, and a charm that is quintessentially Parisian and unique.
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MK Aaref is an architect. He studied architecture and urban planning at the University of Houston. Later, he specialised in privatisation during his MBA from Aston University, UK. He currently resides and practices in Dhaka.