This Town Did The Impossible

Thank you for watching - do you think this method would work for other towns as well? Why so, or why not? How can we convince policymakers to take beauty serious?

Viva France!

These redevelopments require a lot of government money and I'm not sure it's an effective use of that money from a social perspective.
When the people who got to buy their homes at a fraction of the market value or their descendants eventually sell it, it will be at a much higher price, permanently eliminating a significant amount of affordable housing.
Imho policies that encourage homeownership are generally toxic to social mobility and only ever benefit the rich and the lucky. The rich, because they have the capital to invest in promising real estate investments and the lucky who happen to own real estate that get's redeveloped or get eye watering subsidies to buy their homes or move elsewhere.
In contrast to investments in education, job creation, public transit or affordable housing these homeownership subsidies are remarkably inefficient, because it doesn't increase productivity and has no network effects.

Philippines could use more pleasant-looking social housing

What an amazing video and you’re telling such a meaningful and beautiful story! Thanks so much! 👏

I LOVE THIS!!! It really goes to show you can redesign a city into a more pleasant, walkable, and beautiful city!! I would love to live there compared to where I live now.

i didn't know that the communists even ruined France...

LOVE THIS!! I know it is POSSIBLE to make EVERY CITY beautiful - environment influences the human, the human influences the environment - we just can't give up on ourselves, and each other.

Now, there would need to be direct connection to the capital via metro, the train being far to irregular or crowded, the commute time is still complex for people living there. The 15m life should also apply to work => Remote for can be or efficient transport. Maybe it will arrive with the "Grand Paris" urban plan but i'm not sure sure it will improve. Some lines of local transport should be review, like the RER B (Robinson branch is too short) & RER C (not frequent enough) to be modernized and traffic adapted to still allow return to city near Paris before/close to midnight. The RER A (which would gain to be more stable) is a good example, the line is quite long thanks to deserving Disneyland Paris.

Pretty interesting.
But, though you nuanced the way you presented the town policy and its mayor, you did'nt nuance the way you introduced the history of the town.

You first presented it in a way that could make one understand that the grey social housing blocks were the responsibiliy of the communist party. But in reality, after WWII, these buildings could be found all over big city suburbs in France, especially in Paris. It was more a governmental policy or a consequence of it and of the historical context.
France, at that time, chose to house inmigrants that came to rebuild the country in these blocks. And this is why the communist party was often the one leading those suburban cities full of working class people, that were, for a good part, inmigrants.
Ironically, the party of Charles de Gaulle, that chose this policy at that time, was the one that would later become the one of the mayor you presented here.

But in France, the politically left side parties, just as the communist one, were the first suggesting that those social housing should be beautiful and should'nt look like a ghetto.
So it feels a bit odd to start this historical description of this city, putting the presence of the communist party and these grey blocks side to side, because the blocks are really not the consequence of the communist party. Actually, it's probably the opposite.

But a very interesting video, nevertheless.

1090 Vienna, Alsegrund Cafe du France

Your final point of beauty being integral to humanity is very true

And i hope more people will understand in the future

Prelijepo osmišljeno i izvedeno. Stvarno super. ❤

oh😮

I liked the video but I'm still not satisfied about the gentrification question in this video : what really happened to the residents ? 80% said yes, how many of them really stayed (instead of benefiting then selling as soon as possible or abandoning altogether when it was impossible to pay) ? how much the general revenue increase was by immigration or by the locals ?

I'm an architecture student and I found that modernism are always in the thinking of my professors and I agree that it is in a certain point an interesting vision of spaces it help me to understand how a space can be qualitative but for me the esthetic is so rude and ugly most of people find it ugly and because in the architect view it's beauty we give it to the population even if people don't like the esthetic. We don't listen about population think and taste this way of reject the population taste is like totalitarism and I'm not okay with this even if it's unconscious. The exemple of Plessis Robinson is a good one to show that we need another types of esthetic in town and how we can retake the old urbanism structure to a new one. Most of architect maybe define this type of town of "pastiche" wich mean to imitate old esthetics in a negative way because we use concrete unless the original materials of the technics. But we find old cities comfortable to walk in and beautiful!! Why don't we retake the old aesthetics with the modern technics? Plus old town were made for pedestrian because there were no cars before now we built towns for cars and all is zoning and orthogonal. There is no activities in pavilions neighbors and no house near supermarkets .. I think that we must rearrange that and mix all that we need. Paris work because there is all mixed! House and shop at the ground floor of practically every building and the town was made for pedestrian firstly (boulevard are built after with haussmann for aeration of the town but also for the cars! With generous spaces)
I have lot of things to say and this video inspire me a lot so I stop now x).

Thank you for reading me and I'm sorry for my English which is a little bad maybe. 😅

Beauty can save the world

"The concentration of marginalised groups has its toll…" followed by xenophobic projections and an absence of context covering a 40-year span. Great work. vomits

Commies took over, and then things got sinister. LOL
(ツ)☕ ☕(ツ)

Avant le Plessis Robinson , il y a eu Antony encore plus spectaculaire , et première réalisation du genre.

why do you compare the worst modern architecture with the best classical architecture? Its not fair!

I don’t understand. Did they tear down and build anew?

We MUST destroy ugly pathetic so called "modern" (read UGLY) skyscrapers and rebuild with CLASSIC (read BEAUTIFUL) architecture

I live in Berlin an honestly am kinda jealous of what happened there... You had so much opportunity to rebuild this city in beautiful and humane ways but most of the houses built are white soulless blocks without identity. Berlin is a city of art and innovation! millions of young people migrate to create start ups and bring tons of creativity and culture with them. How come that the city landscape doesn't reflect that? It doesn't need to be ultra classical, although that is also part of our history. Still, Berlin never was a city like Paris that shone with beauty... But it could be welcoming and inspiring. Maybe looking back on the innovative architecture of art nauveau and art deco that had shaped the city before the war would help bring back life and inspiration. And even early bauhause, while concentrating on utility, tried to give humans a pleasant surrounding. Instead it's just gentrification and ugly architecture built for profit😢

Oh boy, I have heard a lot of rubbish about modernist architecture, but justifying classical architecture through neurological science, that blows my mind. I would suggest the author travels a bit around Central Europe and explains the fantastic changes in societies that modernist architecture brought, without most ever becoming ghettos, and then he should go to UK and tell about poor communities living in the lovely little victorian houses, built in the "right" style that people easily relate to.

I think you really dont like modernist architekture and you are desperately trying to frame it as common sense. Different people like different thing, and there are many factors deciding what we like and what we don't like. You blame modernist architekture for completely unrelated things. There is a dangerous and criminal youth when unemployement is high and they dont have other things to do. You can visit old communist districts in Warsaw and you will see how peacefull it is. Then you can visit modernist neighbourhoods in Naples or Marseille, and I'm sure you will not like it. And after this 2 trips check youth unemployement rate in Warsaw and Naples. Same thing with throwing trash, you can find millions of privat backyards full of trash and very clean public spaces. What matter here is not modernist architekture but education and social consciousnes of the inhabitants. I think if you want to be objective you should say that you personally don't like modernism, and stop trying to frame it as absolute trouth

That's amazing and might be useful to every town and city )
Do you know any modern french urbanists worth following ?

You forgot another lesson: don’t let any communist manage a damn thing. Every city in Paris’ banlieue that is, or has been managed by the communists is an awful shithole.

Yeah it’s very nice they have gone this far to make housing and the area beautiful

🎉

I’ve been living 45 years close by and never heard of that project…
Today it is a commercial success and nice place to live in.
Thanks for posting.

I wonder what finally happened with the social housing that was protected and ran into high costs.

They literally make the people pay for the social housing, so what the point?!

So inspiring! Thank you for your work!

I hope it will be possible to replicate in Cities Skylines 2 XD

After reading a lot of testimonies from former residents, it seems like this place is guilty of gentrification and privatisation. There’s always two sides to these redevelopment schemes and we should be critical of who it impacts.

Yes! More of green people yearn for do not eliminate the terribly ugly architecture, i hope those socialistic blocks in my city just collapse because they make me puke on sight

If something similar realise in Ukraine, I think it can be a bright idea!

As an architectural draftsman i love modern building design. But as we age with this profession we start to appreciate classic architectural design.

I’m going to use this concept to work with my elected reps to develop our area

Send it to the french government, they need to take notes

The exact same thing in Rome. Communist local politicians created “Il Serpentone”. Check it out. We’re hopping for something similar (nothing short of a miracle)

I want to live there

I'm so happy that someone is pronouncing French names properly whilst speaking English.

The new building on the thumbnail looks terrible, looks like a apartment version of a mcmanssiom

Reject Communism.
Embrace Tradition.

I can feel the HAUSSMANN spirit... 🥰⚜🏗🏫

🥰 I IMMEDIATLY recognized Le Plessis Robinson. The right-wing mayor did a wonderful job!!!!! Charming and peaceful.
(Now it's time to make this to lots of French suburbs... which means to get bad people out!)

Thanks , good show .