This Town Did The Impossible
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- čas přidán 2. 02. 2023
- This Town Did The Impossible City Transformation
What happens if you totally transform a town? This suburb was dominated by modernist urbanism and was transformed by introducing traditional, mixed use urban fabric, beautiful architecture inspired by its local traditions, a lot of green and a more balanced housing supply.
In this video you'll hear everything about Le Plessis-Robinson, a town in the suburbs of Paris, and how it was completely transformed - and I'll give 7 lessons of how this town did it.
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-- Special Thanks ---
Special thanks to my patrons, you rock! Also, the team that organised IMCL 2022 in Le Plessis Robinson.
This video was not sponsored (except by the support of our patrons)
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le plessis robinson,architecture,Philippe Pemezec,hauts de seine,ile de france,urban renewal,The Aesthetic City,lego city update,city transformation,leplessis robinson,gothic revival architecture,municipal development,housing crisis,garden city mall,smart city,smart urban planning,coeurde ville,sustainable development,sustainable development goals,united nations,public private partnerships,community development,mixed housing,housing,france 24
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?
I think the direction is great but I see a few problems. Most important: 1.The detailing of the buildings is not really creative. We need people who can design ornaments that are more unique and refined. One way to do this is cost effectively is by designing the buildings in a way that more or better ornament can be added later. So owners or renters can invest in beautifying their house. Also, in the 19th century they used a lot of plaster to create ornament. A lot of art-nouveau ornament is just plaster and a lot of Art-Deco ornament is concrete. Relatively cheap, allows for a lot of trying and error. 2. Let people buy their houses is a bad idea if you just allow the market to inflate the prices. I believe there are in-between options. For instance a contract that says you can only buy the house if you sell it for the same price. You can specify this any way you want, you can also allow people to buy the house but they can't make more profit than 10%+inflation if they sell it again. This gives the freedom of property (rebuild the interior as you like, inheritance rights) without the speculation.
Absolutely I think this should be a trend. Man I think you are doing a wonderful and meaningful job, you already inspired me with two of your videos. Im actually surprised it`s only your second video I think if you continue youll find great success. Cause the philosophie you expose in these videos are what architects should really strive for
There was a plan to rehabilitate the old delapidated city of Manila to bring it's back it's lost glory Manila was called Paris of the east and Pearl of the Orient beautiful building were destroyed during the war when the city was rebuild unsightly post war buildings was erected centuries old achitectural treausures laid in ruins buldorized and demolished the city is like a honky tonk district.the plan is to recapture the beauty of old Manila by rebuilding old landmarks new buildings should follow colonial skyline and incentives will be given to building owners who will maintain their old buildings planting trees and greeneries and flowering plants around the city clean and green and Manila will recapture it's old world charm sadly the project was good but did not continue by the new administration. a new mayor of Manila came to power Mayor Isko Moreno and rehabilatate Manila and called his Project Ang Bagong Maynila or New Manila Manila became more urbanized old landmarks restored and beautification followed by planting flowers and plants around the city when he decend into power the city loose a leader who had a political will the success of any project to beautify a city is in the hand of a good leader who have a will to achieve this goal. Make more video of this kind it help teaches the world to make a city that is livable and beautiful
Our plan is to buy some plots of land here and there, and to start building new constructions according to our principles.
I love this scheme. Keep up the videos
A lot of people don't seem to understand how important trees, grass, and decent architecture are to improving people's lives.
Yes! Too often in the US urban planning so-called YIMBY movement the proponents focus on simplistic "density" redevelopment and utterly fail to integrate diversity, beauty, and nature - urban areas as ecologies - into their advocacy. The outcomes we are seeing are often grim, a capitalist developer version of the 40 years of brutalist communist design.
@@JC-vq2cs Soviet microdistrict vs USA Suburbia
They understand, why do you think the most expensive apartments in new york look at trees in central park, or out over the ocean, and ones that look at walls are cheaper
I think the whole movement towards modernist architecture started from left wing academic circles who believed that you fundamentally shouldn't make a capitalist country beautiful, but what they percieved to be an ugly system should also look ugly on the outside. Combine that with a preference for equality over quality and you get modernist architecture. And the rest of the society was just duped into it.
Oh trust me, a lot of ppl understand that. What the video dont talk about the amount of money needed, the support of the citizens & the regulations or political will, that goes into it..
Its not as simple for a poor country or corrupt gov..
i recently graduated with an architecture degree, during all those years I've always tried to prove that classical design mixed with modern tecnology and techniques are the future of architecture. but everyone even the professors stayed stuck with this dreadful abstract and depressing buildings. This town proves that beauty and tradition will always triumph over mass produce minimalism. Thank you for this great video!
Show your profs the vid if you have free time. I think they'll be quite surprised
@@TailsDollOS oh I already am!
I wish you success.
Don’t forget; if they’re stuck, reminding them how much less people want to pay for modern or contemporary brutal architecture might be a reminder… 😉 Otherwise they’re just religious.
Hey man, congratulations on graduating! I'm barely starting off my architecture studies myself at a community college with the hope of one day achieving a master's myself. But it's pretty cool to see you've gotten far
This is a slap across the faces of those modernist architects and their supporters, and I love it.
A slap across the face sounds a little harsh but definitely a wake up call?
Architects always build the ugliest of houses for others. Concrete high-rises without any appeal and live in the woods in a designed house for themselves. The hypocrisy...
Our city council has allowed horrible development in our city in recent years, dark, boxy, ugly, modern, uninviting apartment buildings everywhere. They let a foreign developer come in and demolish the oldest stone building in the city, and the lot has sat empty for half a decade. They redid the art gallery in a modern style and are tearing down our gorgeous old playhouse and replacing it with a modern building. They demolished our 150-year-old wading pool in favor of a modern splash pad, ripped out the Victorian-era wrought iron fencing downtown, cut down so many gorgeous old trees for nothing. I'm so sad about it all.
@@eily_bkinda lame to speak for all architects, there are also a lot of cool futuristic designs out there without faking classic
Modernists are satanists
Why are beautiful old towns and cities so popular? Because they’re beautiful!
This isn't old .
@@ccatterywhat a pointless comment lmao. it evokes the old
@@ccattery Damn, you managed to watch the whole video without getting the point...
@@ccatterythe point is that the old architectural style is beautiful hence there recreated this shown in this video
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I visited this town in 1989 while studying Architecture in Versailles, nearby to the northwest. It was very grim and had a brutal rundown feeling. It is amazing to see how a focused mayor, good architectural design, and around 30 years can transform a place. Yes, short sighted developers can destroy a place.
You think the person living in the building you said is ugly. can buy a house in the new build. who stood over the house you destroyed
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa probably since they would have been paid for the land when it was destroyed or atleast given a part of the new property
Sorry, where's the good architecture there? It's better than soul-crushing communist blocks, which are also not good architecture. But, otherwise, it's the French equivalent of the McMansion: a bunch of styrofoam doo-dads slapped on a box and covered in stucco to achieve the bare minimum look of a beaux-arts or neoclassical building. It's fake. It's immitation. It's pseudo. Not good architecture.
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa You clearly didn't watch the video. The inhabitants were offered the choice to buy the (now improved) apartments they lived in for a fraction of their value. 80% took the offer.
It’s not only a focused mayor, it’s a republican (not left wing communist Marxist that will keep it poor and dirty to keep votes, like in the Soviets).
It’s my dream to see the entirety of my country heal overtime like this 🇫🇷
we need to stop building things that look terrible and go back to building places for people.
Hopefully Scotland can follow this as well. Way too many brutalist and post modern eye sores here nowadays!
Unfortunately, this town is an exception in the region, my city, which is located only 20km away from the one showed in the video, has taken the exact opposite path and is becoming uglier every year thanks the corrupt mayor who allows construction companies to do whatever they want as long as he gets his bribes.
I wish my country would do this (Ireland) but not a single one of our leaders has any vision or is thinking this way at all.
You need to stare repatriations before you can heal
Aesthetics is so pivotal to our wellbeing that it can be the difference between depression and joy
I am an architect and admire this effort, congratulations to all who made it happen, and thanks for the video. This type of urban design is exceptional and should be taught in architecture schools, where strident, harsh, cold oppressive buildings are considered the new age and only way....yet are ruining cities. This town here as shown is GREAT!!!!!
I live in the original Garden City (Letchworth) and I really like the what they've done here. Even if you copy a layout the buildings must be culturally appropriate or the place will come across as alien to the locals. We have all types of the good and bad design, from the early quaint more traditional cottage and family housing design (my house is of the latter, a 1917 3 bed semi) through to estates containing 60s concrete block builds to 70s less brutal blocks in parks builds to cheap and nasty 80s interior dry wall builds (these have been banned here now as it was discovered they violated bylaws relating to the town). Now, you might say Letchworth could use something like this to get back to the original plan of building village lifestyles on a town scale but in England 30 miles north of London it's kind of culturally appropriate to have this constant reflection of ever changing building trends. Though there are a few places that need redeveloping, there's 2 blocks of flats on one estate that need levelling, they're the exact problem highlighted here. Ugly living environments lead to ugly behaviour, just as we know nature around us improves our health we know that brutalist uncaring buildings lead to communities not caring.
I, as a Brazilian, am so used to see people thinking only on the next four year (i.e., the next elections), that it's absolutely astounding to think of someone developing a city planning project for 20+ years
Infelizmente é pq a mentalidade aqui é criar um Projeto de Poder e não um Projeto de Nação.
Isso explica os inúmeros elefantes brancos superfaturados e cidades completamente disfuncionais.
@@AnaSilva-tl1zya razão que monarquismo precisa ser voltado
Mas existem planos de longo prazo, o problema é que ninguém liga pra eles, as pessoas devem participar mais das decisões tomadas, um Plano diretor Urbano/municipal por exemplo é revisto de 10 em 10 anos, mas se ninguém participa acaba ficando para a gestão atual decidir o que lhe convém.
@@marcosv.ribeiro1073 eu sou literalmente da comissão de PDM da minha cidade. O plano está pronto desde 2020 e nenhum dos dois prefeitos tiveram interesse em mandar aprovar e publicar. O atual é um PDU de 2001, disfuncional e basicamente inutilizado.
@@ItIsTheLordWhoKeepsme eu simpatizo um pouco com a ideia monárquica e gosto de como D. Pedro II tinha carinho pelo Brasil. Mas não sei se uma monarquia iria resolver nosso problema (sei lá, não gosto muito da nossa república, mas se uma monarquia fosse voltar, deveria ser em uma conformação mais inovadora, na minha opinião de não muito entendedora do assunto). Mas de qualquer forma vc acha que existe uma possibilidade remota da monarquia voltar e, seria ela uma solução?
This actually moved me. I did not thinks this was still possible in our days and age.
I cried.
Same. Especially the ending. I spend most of my life dreaming of going away from my country duo to simply wanting to live in a more inspiring place, not somewhere where I go out everyday to work and it looks like I’m in a prison. It ruins everyone’s mood, and makes you do poorly at everything cus what’s the point. Not many people would feel like moving away from home, family and even society, if quality of life was always this prioritized. My country still puts necessity above comfort cus that’s all it understand about life, not realizing that’s precisely what imprison us in this cycle of constant _need_ cus we’re not genuinely getting anything ever. Life is supposed to be lived so how we do it is just as important as simply doing it
Let's just say it moved me... TO A BIGGER HOUSE.
as a french citizen let tell you it's a miracle. I did'nt even know about it, I live 15 miles from there.
they retain compatible demographics
I lived in Plessis-Robinson for 4 years.
Coming from Paris, what surprised me most at first was the cleanliness and respect of the people who live there.
The facilities are well thought out (car parking in the basement, efficient and punctual garbage collection, shops with long opening hours, armed local police, so you can come in late without worrying about security).
I think the most important thing is to give residents the desire to preserve their homes, whether social or otherwise.
It's well described in this video: empowerment is key.
Is it quite an old city (are the people old)? It looks like a retirement town
@@pneron2032 nah, it's just a civilized town
@@pneron2032traditional architecture seems to actually attract young people.
Look at Heidelberg in Germany for example. One of the youngest cities in the nation. It's basically all tradional architecture, or at least buildings build in a tradional style
Thank you for your insights!
That means it's not melanin enriched enoough as Paris or London.
I hope America and other nations who made the mistake of going for grey slab buildings follow suit. There are so many historic sights in cities like Houston, Los Angeles, and even St. Louis that were demolished to make way for parking lots and strip malls. I wish to see these city centers be rebuilt with mixed use buildings soon.
Keep dreaming. They won't even pass bills for infrastructure, despite having a rating of D+
And this type of development isn't profitable so that's another roadblock there
A dream Brother😍😍
Only small
It happened in our city, too. They've destroyed so much of the character and warmth.
I've lived in this town my entire life. It feels so strange to see the building you live in and the streets you walk through every day in a high quality English speaking video.
I've learned so much from this video and makes me appreciate this town even more, as I've always took this place for granted.
Thank you very much for this video .
I would suggest that your community will likely continue to see international attention. The problems caused by the legacy of Brutalist designs affects city's around the world and the idea of solving it without gentrification is a significant problem that this project seems to address effectively.
You’re and i’m envy, adopt me?
@@TheFuelInjected It would be great if more people and cities could understand how this model is beneficial and take inspiration from it, but even in cities around mine things still work quite differently, with some horribly ugly projects being build around nice parks, focusing on stores and "eco friendliness" and modernity while disregarding the actual beauty of the architecture, preferring concrete masses with some plants and pieces of wood strapped to it.
It seems local governments don't want to commit to long term projets that surpass their time in office and prefer taking faster and easier solutions
@Pegasvs Absolutely. My city council just spent over a million dollars of taxpayers money on repaving a parking lot downtown and plopping down 8 sea cans, called the project "town square" to make it seem like it's not just a parking lot with sea cans commonly found in derelict industrial districts.
@@Pegasvs hello, vous pensez à quel projet exactement ?
As a French living in Paris region, I heard Robinson for its pleasant living quality, I never ever thought it was like that in the 80's
Je sais pas, certe c’est un peu mieux, mais pour tout l’argent dépensé, il aurait put mieux faire que du neo-haussmanniens qui va extrêmement mal vielllir
@@Simon-je6ck Neo-haussmanniens qui va mal vieillir ? L’usure ce fera ressenti mais infiniment moins que sur les affreux blocs sociaux post-guerre mondiale qui ont été construit en masse. Puis si les gens restent respectueux, qu’ils prennent soin du lieu où ils habitent, il n’y a pas de raison que ça ne marche pas.
@@Huka.H j’en suis pas si sûr, ma critique envers ce genre de bâtiment c’est faire du pseudo historicismes, j’aime beaucoup l’Hausmannien car ils sont avant tout authentique, ce sont de véritables immeubles en pierre et en bois, et de leur époques, il n’essayer pas d’émuler un style précédent, ils ont juste repris les canons de leur époque qui était l’architecture neo-classique et l’on appliquer à des règles d’urbanisme avec le système en étoiles et une hiérarchie économique dans le bâtiment (commerce - propriétaire-locataire/employé), le bâtiment avait une logique alors que ce que l’on construit aujourd’hui sont des sortes de truc que l’on retrouverai en dans un parc d’attraction tout est dans la façade et cela ce voit que c’est juste des bâtiments en béton préfabriqué avec un peau qui recouvre l’ensemble, il y’a une ville en Chine dans lequel ils reproduit le style Haussmannien, et c’est juste décevant, mon argument est juste que avec les moyens que l’on utilise pourquoi pas essayer de faire mieux avec de l’architecture contemporaine que d’une très mauvaise copie de bâtiment qui appartient à une tout autres époque cent fois révolue en tout points
@@Huka.H et pour les immeuble d’après guerre, je suis d’accord la plupart sont horribles, mais si il y a un une opportunité de les rénover pourquoi ne pas le faire, regarde les architectes Lacaton et Vassal et ce qu’ils ont fait a un grand ensemble à Bordeaux pour pas très cher, c’est une véritable solution, l’extérieur est correct mais l’intérieur est sincèrement magnifique avec le simple ajout d'un espace type jardin d’hiver
@@Simon-je6ckI agree with everythink you said.Its cringe to copy old archetecture if its not puprosly made to sofisticate some center or simmilar
“Beauty and human dignity go hand in hand.” You are so right. This video is absolutely amazing. There are so many lessons here. Allowing people to purchase and therefore take ownership of the area seems pivotal. Not only do they have a developing asset, I imagine it increases their personal investment in the area. And attachment to it as you said. I live in Los Angeles and we are in need of some more human centered solutions to the housing crisis.
I don’t believe in labeling what’s happening in LA as a housing crisis. You develop a city, build as many houses as possible then move out when there is no where left to expand and you can’t deal with the prices. I moved out of SF because of this. LA can’t just turn into NY by building up just because everyone wants to live in LA. Once the housing construction peaks, it’s time to move on if you don’t have a home. There is SD, Sacramento, Inland Empire, etc etc.
Isn't "allowing people to purchase and take ownership of the area" how LA got into their current situation in the first place?
I feel like although the language is always "allow", in truth, what people are asking for is to "prohibit"": "prohibit" the sale of property to non-residents, "prohibit" the ability of homeowners to sell to corporate entities, "prohibit" anything that raises prices, so that whoever is making these suggestions may afford it.
Thank you Mary! Agreeing with what you say :)
The whole US is in need of this! We tore down beautiful Victorian old world architecture to build the very boxes in this video. Now, it's all we have with the old building few and far between. Where I live, they knocked down blocks of beautiful buildings to build a mall back in the 1970's. By the early 2000's it had been closed for quite some time. Then it was torn down and replaced by a high rise office building. Another box, just taller. They built a common town square by it-to "beautify" it. There isn't any shade, doesn't get used because between the building and the concrete, it's hotter than hell. No one wants to be there.
@@VangoghsDoggo They are doing the same in Australia, Chinese and other developers demolishing old theaters and other buildings with character, to replace with concrete and glass high rise luxury apartments, so eventually only the wealthy can live in the city, they have already turned many streets into wind tunnels.
“Beauty and dignity go hand in hand” wow! Thank you. It is abundantly clear. ❤
You are right. Making people live in an ugly place is the ultimate and most insidious injustice.
Amen!
A lot of European homes, their exterior is so beautiful. The interior is ridiculously ugly. I would much rather live in a home where the exterior is ugly but interior is beautiful.
@itstaynaabreu communist moment
@@secrets.295no, both need to be good, otherwise it's no deal. If the outside is ugly, noone will go outside, at least noone will be happy to go outside
@@the_aesthetic_city honestly I dont like it... its not worth it if the people get displaced... word from a socialist/keynesian capitalist.
actually I hate what they did, they turned a popular town into a capitalist decadent hipster paradise... the paradise being mostly due to the greenery... but well now we can sleep happily knowing we destroyed the lively hoods of the noble proletariat by kicking them out by thus making space for the bourgeoisie
Very refreshing to see these kind of projects being still made. Having studied at ETH Zurich, I never encountered during my 5 years of study any professor or lecturer talking about these kind of projects, or any classic style project in general. The point is that our universities are focusing only on modernist and post-modernist theories, where aesthetics are in oblivion.
Old theories got lost, and architects now only talk about the political and technological side of architecture. Aesthetics and human psychology should be integrated into the debate, in order to promote humanscale architecture and improve the wellbeing of humans in the built environment.
👏👏👏 what our homes and neighbourhoods look like has a huge impact on our quality of life, you don't need a massive amount of space, but you need good light, green spaces and a walkable city. I live in an apartment from 1979, but I love the huge windows it has a lot the natural light, we also have a private garden and across the road is a small but well kept public garden.
I was interested in studying architecture, but indeed as you mention, those courses have been going on a route only caring about "efficiency" and destroying the old world (Which is why I lost interest), because we have "evolved" according to them.
Nothing could be further from the truth, we as a people, have devolved!!
Every time I read or hear things that were uttered by folks from hundreds of years ago, I marvel at their sincere , yet humble wisdom.
The so called wise people of today cannot compare to them in the slightest!
You are 100% right. Having the same problem in Sweden. Something needs to be done about that problem. It seems prevalent in most arch schools however.
I go as far as say that ‘pragmatic’ mentalities like these are quite dangerous. It treats people as cattle, like all that we need to survive is just the necessary, so we either start dreaming about leaving our home, constantly romanticizing about the past, or even blaming the emptiness we feel on those who have more. It’s a recipe for social conflicts I think.
Having also studied at ETH, I must say that Swiss modern architecture is rather "dull", a bit too minimalistic an soulless at times
Urban planners and the public can learn so much from visiting charming villages in France. Tourists flock to these picturesque villages because the aesthetics makes them happy. The scale and shapes of the buildings, and the pathways in between, along with the materials, details, and landscaping create a mood that people love and encourages walking and interacting with people.
Contrary to this is the horrible grid pattern for streets that are prevalent throughout the United States where people drive for miles to visit look-alike malls.
And, at those malls, you get treated like an absolute criminal if you linger around and try to enjoy your inalienable God-given right to free expression and commerce in any form that doesn't directly and immediately profit them financially.
There are charming villages outside France too. 🙂
Literally anywhere in Europe. Just saying.
@@pcsullog Yes, and evidently all that "European Architecture" was built by Muslims, before the Christians and Jews took over and won the war and erased history and rewrote the history books to favor Christians and Jews, denying the truth of #Tartaria.
This was awesome. I hope more cities do this.
Так пойдет ? czcams.com/video/eUKAArZvFCs/video.htmlsi=AYr8Zk9uNaRyBLCq
Great video! I'm an architect and I'm constantly fighting misconceptions amongst both the public and other people in the industry who think that good cities can't be built anymore. Please bring us more videos - I need fodder to convince them!
Hi I'm also a student of architecture, and I support you, yes in our academia, they tend to dismiss anything related to the past is considered innovative according to them, being inspired and copying some of the past is not wrong , it's just loud opinion that wants to control the future and only want to see modern architecture be the winner, it's like a cult that exists but for modern or contemporary architecture. That's the biggest problem in architecture. The ignorance of modernists to accept styles and traditional methods.
@@javierpacheco8234 I see this "opinion" expressed all the time online by architecture studends, who have this arrogance and condescending attitude towards people who think differently. Glad you're not the same.
Rooting for you!
As an attorney, policy director and community development minded individual i say keep going. I pray in the future I can work with architects who think like you and want to create something
@@javierpacheco8234 You’ll be shocked how much modern architect were influenced by neo-classical architecture people tend to confuse modern architecture and real estate developper/social housing contractors buildings and many when given the ressources modern architects have made truly magnificent construction
Having trees everywhere is very important to embellish our cities
Yeah thats why I love living in Europe. I talked about something like this to Americans and they said they mostly only get green in the cities if its a tiny town or if there is a park close to their home, but barly any trees in the streets of big cities and I was shooked, cause in Germany you find at least 1 tree in each street and some streets have a tree like all 5m away or there are trees between buildings etc.
And moving the Muslims out?
Vines and trees
So true...peoole love mature trees...which attract wildlife
@@ACEsParkJunheeWreckedMeHard I live in canada and theres definatly a decent amout of trees here espeically in suburban areas some areas almost look like a mini forest and im still pretty close to the city
Thanks for this video. I always wonder why in the last 60 years beautiful cities have been ruined by awful new buildings. This is really inspiring.
Too often we don’t even realise (or we ignore) what is wrong, until we experience something that feels right. I think many people (including my self) have not only enjoyed these videos demonstrating positive and beautiful change, but we have also been surprisingly moved by them. I think for too long we have been taught that doing things the right way, the good way, is naive and unprofitable, or only for the wealthy. Doing things right has its own rewards that are much longer lasting and and have a deeper impact than we realise. I think that perhaps humanity is beginning to realise what it has been missing and also recognising what is actually possible. Thank you for these videos. I look forward to seeing many many more, knowing that at least in these places people are getting it right and will hopefully be examples that will spread far and wide! 🖖🏼❤️
Well said 👍💜
Beauty is not a luxury, but a human need.
Instant subscription, very much looking forward to seeing more from you
Yes but beauty requires high upkeep. Any time you have corruption and money being siphoned away, all the beauty you can get will sooner or later become a burden.
@@meilinchan7314 not really, beauty is not expansive, often it is just a choice
Same here
Fantastic video - so encouraging to see. What Pemezec did by adding beautiful ornamental plants was also done all over Singapore to boost morale, under an extremely pragmatic prime minister. Not only did this help Singapore; it also inspired other Asian cities to do the same, even competitively. Even if beauty is a goal in its own right, it pays off!
Thank you Alex!!
And indeed, Singapore is an interesting example in that regard
Pemezec is one of the most corrupted mayor in the Haut de Seine
Yeah I’m always amazed at how beautiful Singapore is! Not just the historical city centre but also the new constructions further out. The emphasis on greenery, along with lovely parks and waterways, really contrasts nicely to the apartment buildings. All the convenience of a city with its excellent public transport but it doesn’t feel crowded and claustrophobic
I noticed this about Singapore and LOVE it! ❤
This was nice to see, so often everyone is so focused on the efficiency of human housing and keeping it as cost-effective as possible that we forget the human element.
Inspired by your video I visited le Plessis-robinson a few weeks ago.
I had to be in the neighbourhood for business and took the opportunity to stay there for a few days. It was even nicer than I expected. Even in late November.
Now the buildings are getting a bit older, they look less "Disney" and more real life. I had my car with me but walking around was a pleasure, for it enabled us to take the walkways and paths between the buildings.
The project of le Plessis-robinson has inspired many other locations in that area, to build new projects in this "Néo-Traditionnel" style as you can clearly see when driving from le Plessis-robinson towards the centre of Paris.
“Beauty and human dignity go hand in hand” that’s so good! You have skilfully clarified my abstract feelings and inspired me to make something today 🕊️✨
Not sure. Rich buy beauty so this city ll begin for rich people.
OMG I've been living in le Plessis Robinson since 2018 ! Thank you for the shoutout! What a brilliant quality video ! I've learnt so much. So funny to recognize the spots you filmed. It IS a lovely town to live in. You should see at Christmas time the magic of the parades, market and fireworks. Loads of families and children. And the gerdening team is so clever. Every season it's like a painting of flowers and colors and gorgeous floral smells.
The World is wonderful, when you kick out the poor...
I can imagine Christmas there!
@@MrDeicide1 you have'nt listened to the video , they have'nt kicked out anyone, it's all about making beautifule things for the poor andit's the proof that when this happens, they just don't stay poor much longer.
@@backintimealwyn5736
No, you haven't listened
@@MrDeicide1: The video indicated that, already a shrinking group, those in "social housing" were offered to buy homes at low costs, subsided by profits on pricey homes, and that some 80% accepted the offers.
Though I’m not doing anything related to architecture, I found this video extremely informative and helpful to remind us of the importance of beauty, which has been faded recently. Please have more videos like this in the future.
I'm pleased to see a video about Le Plessis Robinson, where I lived for 2 years.
Other cities next to it, like Clamart, are following quite the same strategy.
Thank you for your video!
It brings me so much hope in these seemingly hopeless times of modernist monstrosities. Amazing work.
It also brings me hope that politicians actually care for us
@@tripanzo You think the person living in the building you said is ugly. can buy a house in the new build. who stood over the house you destroyed
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa Your comment doesn't make any sense? You increase the living standards by building better and proper houses for people in poverty. People in Norway who still live relatively poor doesn't live in in crappy houses for example.
@@tripanzo not all countries have oil money like norway. and more people live in slum housing with an area of under 5 square meters per capital
@@tripanzo you can still build a new home elsewhere. and increase the number of paskon houses. but don't destroy 10.000 poor people's houses to build 1.000 rich people's houses. and let 8.000 people live rent houses. and 1.000 homeless people. you morons . only to increase the value of your own property
I completely agree with the idea that beauty matters. It's really important for people to feel well treated. Unfortunately, le Plessis Robinson is now very expensive though(and look a bit like a ski station) because the same plan is not applied everywhere in France and we still have lots of places with terrible urbanism in poor neighborhoods.
expensive for new folks, perhaps, but if the social housing is still in place and many of those are home-owners, it's win-win
It is somewhat applied in marne la vallée, some of the new cities near Disney look exactly like this and are taken car of by their inhabitants. For the prices, well good, goes to show that beauty can create value for those involved in it.
I suppose though that from case studies like these, urban planners can look at what has succeeded here and what has failed. That way better plans can be put in place in the future, after all once housing is high quality, high quality housing won't be a premium.
Meanwhile architects in Africa, India, Pakistan, South America...?
Yeah because mass immigration is the core issue here the concrete neighbourhoods while ugly in the 70's and 80's were actually pretty peacful and didn't have much crime which all changed recently with the advent of mass immigration which combined with the ugly communist architecture created the problem many neighbourhoods are in, le Plessis Robinson just gentrified the place for rich white french people while having a few social housing projects while i agree that we need classical architecture the main problem is mass illegal immigration.
I love this video because not only did you go through the process of how this town came to be, and the importance of good infrastructure, but also showed the problems that can come about. But it really does show what I've been telling people-- change is possible. We shouldn't have to accept ugly areas or ones with poor infrastructure.
I wish we would do this in our Mexican towns. We do have beautiful colonial cities, but then we have some awful ones too that I wish could get transformed just like this gorgeous little town.
Это слишком маленький городок. Вот побольше czcams.com/video/eUKAArZvFCs/video.htmlsi=AYr8Zk9uNaRyBLCq
A major issue in Latin America (where I live) is that commercial properties are allowed to use any type of construction and advertisement. Villages here are UGLY because you have a lime green pharmacy next to a loud blue supermarket, flags and posters of products everywhere. Part of "freedom".
Oh, and cables above ground.
They just think that because these are developing/poor countries, beauty is not a concern.
@@purpurina5663 Oh yea big time. Along with ugly sidewalks, ugly pothole ridden streets. Latin America can be hideous. All of them. Nadie se salva. We have first world areas, but I feel like it’s 30% of areas that are nice. Not talking about natural beauty.
Some of the buildings look a bit kitsch, but many of them are nice. Overall, a great improvement. This is a step to reach the cultural revolution we need to bring back traditional architecture and beauty. I'm sure future projects will be even better.
Indeed - it is a bit kitschy, not going to deny that. But the whole experience feels right, and that is already a great improvement. Also, it proves the point that traditional architecture works. Just imagine what happens if the level goes up even further!
@@the_aesthetic_city What do you think is the best way to get a beautiful building without spending too much? A concrete skeleton with an artificial/cast stone facade? Or maybe cast stone would still look a bit fake? Would a brick facade be better? Or idk: a full concrete building with just some decoration on like some stucco/some brick or even some stone?
@@tomassakalauskas2856thank you for the comment I somehow agree :) but a beautiful traditional building can be built in a few time, especially something quite simple (like a simple traditional home). There is a beautiful eclectic/romanesque church near to my home which was built from 1927 to 1930.
I would have this kitsch a hundred times over a Bauhaus abomination
@@Fee581 Traditionalist buildings are actually not that expensive as most of people believes. That traditionalist architecture is too expensive to build is the most common counter argument modernists use, but it does not explain how historically medieval peasants were able to afford to live in more aesthetically beutiful buildings than those we have today, even though we live in the most technically proggressive and wealthy time in humanitys history. One might argue that the materials and the techniques are too expensive but materials actually only make up a small fraction of a buildings value nowadays. The cost of buildings in our day is artificially inflated by the extremely unethical housing market, and almost the entire cost of buying apartments and such are a consequence of inflation and not the actual cost of the materials. Furthermore we have more modern techniques than what the people of the past could even dream of. Obviosly it would be easier for us, with our advanced machinery and digitalisation to construct craftmanship than what the people from the past had to do with manual labour and simple tools. Furthermore traditionalist architecture is way more sustainable than modern architecture. Concrete ages like milk and needs constant renovations and repaintings to look fresh and to hold, but stone ages like fine wine. The production of concrete is also very enviorment demanding, and concrete production is one of the highest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Stone is much more enviormentally friendly to use, and as I mentioned does not need to be replaced every 30 years like concrete.
That traditionalist architecture is expensive is nothing but an EXCUSE that was constructed by the general population to explain why our cities have become so ugly and to cover up a problem that is actually philosphical, yes that’s right. The problem with traditionalist architecture is not the costs, but the philosophies engrained deep in our society that started to take shape in the early 20th century. I believe what we need to change right now is not costs or economically related questions, but philosophical ones.
Hi Rueben not only was it great to meet you at IMCL in Le Plessis-Robinson last year, but you have saved me a ton of work by producing such a wonderful and informative video. Instead of a post-conference report, I will just show your video to my team!
One point though, "gentrification" is not in itself a problem. After all, how can making a place nicer be a problem? The correct answer is that gentrification often leads to "displacement" and it is displacement that is the problem. As you explain in the video, Mayor (now Senator) Philippe Pemezec and his council, minimized displacement by supporting existing social housing tenants to purchase the rebuilt (or in some cases renovated) apartments. 80% took up the offer (and then re-elected him - why wouldn't they!). So, these families have now moved from working class to middle class AND live in a wonderful place AND have an appreciating asset that their children can inherit. (BTW, I saw plenty of teenagers around the place, but never any indication of anti-social behavior.)
Urban planning is not about laying out roads and utilities and managing construction, it is about building happy and healthy communities. The rest is just a means to an end.
Thank you Steve! And indeed, that is a very good observation you make. I will take it with me for future videos. And it was great to meet you there!
As far as i know, gentrification induces replacement either way, because the land value rises (so you get a higher land tax, which they have to pay because they now own their apartment) and the price of things does too. I'm an urban planning student and it really sucks to know that any improvement of conditions leads to higher prices.
@@willmako5009 It feels like it's because such example is still so rare. I'd bet if this trend become more widespread, there would be less displacement, while everybody would be happier (or at least feel better in the very place they live)
@@willmako5009 On the flip side, regeneration of a town can (or should) lead to more, new and better paying jobs for those on low incomes, that then gives them the means to keep living there.
Gentrification is not the fact that a city becomes more beautiful but the phenomenon of displacement of former inhabitants.
Though I do agree that the key takeaway is that it is possible to make a place significantly more attractive while limiting gentrification
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.
If it was Impossible, then they wouldn't have done it. You got gifted with brains people, use it.
I am an architect and have been of the same opinion for a long time. I am glad you made this video. It will help people to understand this better and hopefully implement it more often.
but what does this video bring?
Most houses are built up by bloodthirsty investors, who care only and only about profit. Houses are a part of human's infrastructure, and infrastructure should not be profit oriented.
It's valid for any kind of infrastructure - starting with water/electricity supply, through street, healthcare, up to public transit. Sell you infrastructure to a private oversee investor - he will abuse the fact, that you are addict to the infrastructure and will squeeze the last penny out of it. Because what else will you do? become homeless? Go to a different hospital during heart attract because "if you don't like out price, go to someone else"? Here capitalism cannot work.
We need to start to build houses to live in, not to make money.
they shouldnt, they ruined the lives of so many families they "rehoused" into 1 room flats
@@furTron That sounds good in theory. But in practice prices for housing have gone up so much, mostly due to necessity to make buildings more energy efficient to help reduce the carbon footprint, that building them purely with tax money, without the money of private investors who look to make a profit, has become impossible.
@@Quotenwagnerianer I cannot agree at all.
I can give you examples of landlords, who did literally nothing to their building, but still increased rent about 50%
Same with speculators, who buy apartment, leave their empty and sell after few years, without even changing anything.
and then check, how things work in Vienna, where around 60% building belong to non-profit organisation, who offer beauty well quality affordable apartments.
Ride of greedy investors - things will work better
@@furTron" I can give you examples of landlords, who did literally nothing to their building, but still increased rent about 50%"
What has that to do with the cost to build houses? Nothing.
My hometown. I am born there in 1995 and lived there all my life until some years ago when, as a broke student, I had, to follow my parents who moved out of the city as my father retired. We previously lived in a staff housing unit which was probably one of the first buildings built according to this plan. You are rigth when you say that it is an amazing city to grow up and live in. But gentrification is a real thing in Le Plessis-Robinson. Literally all the friends I grew up with have left the town because they could not afford to decently live there exept in their parent's housing. Of course, people who bought their housing years ago are doing just fine, but many people who were tenants of their housing had to go into exile in other cities because of the prices. Low and Middle-classes who didn't succeed to have access to social housing (or don't want to) are the most impacted. Today, buying or renting a housing in Le Plessis-robinson is extremely expensive. Of course, this phenomenon affects the entire Paris region, but few places have seen their prices rise as much and as quickly as Le Plessis-Robinson. It's very cool to see what the city has become, but me and my friends have to admit that it's frustrating not being able to live in the town where we grew up and consider as our home.
By the way, although the modern buildings built in the last decades are beyond magnificent and make a big part of the city's charm , I have always thought that some of the buildings built from the 30's to the 80's also had their place in the city, and I miss some of them which no longer exist. I even think that you judge a little too harshly the "white blocks" you show and criticize in your video. Sure, they are from another time, but, If I remember correctly, these are totally decent privately owned housings. And they are even pretty expensive now given the price of real estate in Le Plessis-Robinson. A friend of mine and my doctor's office were in those, and the inside is in fact quite nice. And I always thought that the outside was calm and pleasant. By the way, the buildings that were destroyed to create the new garden city had very nice private vegetable gardens.
And even some of my friends who lived in the poorest part of the city (just after the market and the cultural center), which is almost 100% social housing, found the place they where living in pretty calm and pleasant (even thought I have to admit that security has greatly improved there since the end of the 2000's). Overall, the newer parts of the city aren't the only nice places to live in, even if I understand why people find blocks ugly, after all, my parents hated Le Plessis-Robinson when they moved in in the 80's.
Now that I think about it, in pair with the architecture, what has always made Le Plessis-robinson stand out to me and my friends compared to it's neighboring towns is how calm it is. The layout of the buildings (even the blocks), the green spaces, the parks, the trees. I never felt it was as crowded and busy as other cities of the area. It seemed more aerated. Finally, I will say that all the changes made are not necessarily perfect. Some new buildings are much larger and imposing than those they replace, and sometimes replace spaces that used to be more open and aerated.
But, surely, I miss my city and is very nostalgic about it.
PS : It seems to me that the first social housing in France was built at Le Plessis-Robinson. Also, concerning the architecture of the city during its communist era. I'm not sure that the communists are the only ones to blame. It was what was globally built in France at the time.
Huh
the goal is to make all living spaces like this.
and tbh, its not just communist, its any materialists ideology which ignores the aesthetical and spiritual dimension of a person's life, both communism and capitalism are to blame for the utilitarian ugliness that separates the person from his home and breeds poor morals into people.
I recommend to visit the former socialist countries of central and eastern Europe. Huge areas with "white blocks" and they all have the same problems...
@@humanbeing1675 those blocks of flats where built everywhere in Europe in the 60s and 70s. Had to do with urbanisation and incredibly naive believe of new materials and techniques.
This is interesting. Ideals do indeed change. My mom told me we were offered an apartment in Stockholm Old Town when I was born and we needed more space. Apartments in the city were very worn down and unmodern. Mom turned that offer down " hot and cold water separated, two stairs, etc.." Today it's worth millions, of course... We moved to a newly built block, typical of the '60's.
If I have anything bad to say about this Paris project, it would be that it's planned to appear as it has developed naturally. A city centre doesn't evolve that way.
It is nice. But there is something... clinical about it.
Just an example - cities tend to spread along shores and waterways - not the other way around. It's a bit like "The Truman Show"
Evidence that beauty is NOT in the eye of the beholder. Architecture inspired by traditional aesthetics, with functionality that is designed with community-centric public spaces, quiet streets, and greenery - This is what's important.
This is THE perfect example of the difference between things created
for people & those things created first & foremost for profit......most
of our world !
You know the reason they put all this effort and money in was to increase the property values right? It's all driven by profit.
@@muntedmonkeyz of course, but it's also
an example that profiteering does not have to be devoid of architectural beauty & can feed the soul of those living there if designed and built with intelligence, not just profit in mind :)
I grew up near that town and went through it regularly as the whole city center was built.
I found it so weird and ugly during its development, as you could see columns and pediments made out of grey concrete. It looked faked, like a Disneyland park under construction.
But I ended up liking the final result as I got used to it. And if there still are some kitsch or over the top designs here and there, the whole city looks quite good and indeed feels very pleasant, especially on foot. Like shopping there from store to store feels like living in a village, very cosy.
I realized after your video that during the development I could still see the old ugly blocks next to it, and if I didn't find them nice by any means, I wasn't as shocked by it as thIs new project. It made me realize how much accustomed we can get even to the ugliest things, to the point it's difficult to imagine something else.
It seems to be a rule that you begin to be drawn to that to which you are accustomed. If you've grown accustomed to drab ugliness, you tend to find beauty garish. Like how if we've become accustomed to darkness, even a simple lamp can be blindingly bright if turned on suddenly.
Similar development happened on the satellite towns outside Montpellier in France. Lattes, Port Arianne and Port Marianne, exactly the same ideology and it really does make a difference. I would move bak there to retire in a heartbeat.
Yes, a lot is happening in that area. More municipalities have seen the opportunity. A lot of other countries, hopefully, follow at some point. It felt really peaceful in Le Plessis-Robinson. How big a difference architecture and green can make!
Hello, are these projects all neo classical ? Because it would be a shame to not keep the regional architecture
@@rznkiller7723 they are keeping the regional architecture trend from my understanding.
The Montpellier area is a mixed bag, Lattes/port Arianne and Antigone despite their faults are genuine attempts at hinting at some sort of regional or beautiful architecture but others like Ovalie/Saint-Jean de Vedas are really cash grab feeling poor quality buildings that are just colorful block towers, and port Marianne despite its "natural" vast areas is a kind of a neo post modern thing not really rooted in anything although it looks decently built.
So its gentrification done by government. Interesting
"To accomplish the plans, some inhabitants need to be rehomed". And you can bet that they weren't allowed to move back once the transformation was complete.............
This was my city !!! Le Plessis Robinson. And M. PEMZEC did à fantastic job...
Green, calm, relax People.
I am glad you mentioned the weakness in the tower in the park design(8:33). People have no incentive to take care of a place that others can easily vandalize and face no repercussions.
All of Europe should take a look at this and replicate this in as many cities as possible!
This home Not for poor people
most cities in europe does look like this though?? the concrete commie block looking cities only exist in russia or in former ussr countries.. few exceptions for sure, but this type of architectire literally been the thing in europe for like over 2000 years or something...
@@akina3742 the second world war destroyed a whole bunch of buildings like that. they were mostly replaced by "modern" buildings that don't resemble this design at all. I know what I'm talking about, I am german.
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa yea, you might be right with that...
@@abdamit a public housing area with 40,000 low-cost apartments torn down replaced with 5,000 luxury apartments complete with a new shopping center + anti-homeless design installed in the gardens surrounding the apartment
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.
The fact that there is a whole group dedicated to making cities beautiful and liable gives me hope.
I especially liked the conclusion that beautiful places can be planned and created purposefully. France really shows us here how it works. It does not always have to be empty modernism. I hope that this way of thinking about architecture will spread further in Europe. I myself come from East Germany. Besides a lot of traditional and historical architecture, we also have a lot of blocks from the socialist era. They are really nice and cheap apartments! But the environment, the feeling of living and the social togetherness is often much worse than in other parts of the city. I hope that in the future we will plan our living environment more lovingly. Architecture and human dignity really go hand in hand.
I mean, Paris itself was planned and planned with aesthetics, traditions, view lines, recreation, and public services in mind and the city was incredibly beautiful.
@@newtonia-uo4889
Exactly "was". The new buildings in Paris aren't exactly very beautiful be it the New Opera or the Tour Montparnasse
Amen
there really aren't many new buildings in Paris@@varoonnone7159
@@varoonnone7159 he's talking about late 19th century Paris
I live in here. This morning I wake up, open CZcams, see a thumbnail clearly showing one of the many houses I see everyday. This video is amazing and really well made, thank you for giving that tiny city attention, you really made my day!
I am grateful that I find about this channel from Jeff Speck’s tweet because it gives me hope to see changes happen in cities, especially in my neighborhood area. When I go to my city centre, sometimes I create images in my head of what could be done to make the area more liveable and attractive, seeing more people walking and interacting at shops, and less dependent on cars to go around and travel within it. This channel gives me some insights on the realistical approach taken to financialize the development which gives me more hopes that this new urbanism is possible regardless of the country. Keep up the good work, cheers!
Все возможно.Но для этого нужны финансы. czcams.com/video/eUKAArZvFCs/video.htmlsi=AYr8Zk9uNaRyBLCq
I often work in Plessis, and have wondered how/why its so charming and people are so polite and cheerful. Thanks for your video!
This is REALLY interesting. As a suburbian Parisian, I lived in some neighbouring communes of Le Plessis-Robinson during many years, but rather at the very begininng of this huge work.
At this time, the common feeling in the surrounding communes was that it was ridiculous or useless, just a plaster on the commune's image, which was from “bizarre” to “unpleasant”.
Moreover, it wasn't considered as a “real” commune, due especially to the elevation difference and the absence of real link between the different parts. We didn't think it could change so dramatically from this awful reputation to anything else.
What is relevant, too, is that many other communes in the same part of the suburbs of Paris have similar architectural programs, including a reflexion on urban planning and design (Châtillon, Antony, Montrouge, and of course Issy-les-Moulineaux), although maybe not so comprehensive. But they seemed to be more able to realize such programs, due to their position, their financial health, their size.
I'm really impressed by what have been done ; this isn't only a example, but it will become a model in the current paradigm in Île-de-France's planning, due to many factors : the extension of the metro is the most known, but the great work done about the tram counts, too ; and of course the radical change of cycling infrastructure. And many changes about the regulation in building.
Thank you and keep producing such contents !
Cycling and tree shaded paths make towns and cities so much better!
Isn't there in Brazilian municipalities a Master Plan that must be aproved and complied with even if the council members change every four years? My city, Bilbao in the Basque Country, has gone during decades through big changes following a Master Plan, and every mayor and councillor has to follow it.
Quand tu sais pas le dire en anglais, dis le en français avec l'accent anglais, ça passe. Commune 🙄🙄
communism is toxic, no difference to fascism you only have to look at china to see how disgusting it is
@@kachi9293 pile of fakenews and conspiracy theories. Take your racist narrative somewhere else.
Bonjour, as an American, I can say that I wish our cities were planned/redeveloped so beautifully.
I can say that with envy because having lived in NYC I know that the whole "Concrete Jungle" thing is real.
Also, now that I reside in Western Massachusetts(rural area) about 2 hours from Boston I can say that Boston is generally prettier than NYC because it has emulated Europe to higher degree. First English building then French!
No, don’t copy Europeans, we must build our own style. We aren’t Canada, and didn’t breakaway from Europeans just to live like them. Let them have their own styles.
To someone fr 3rd world, many American cities are quite exquisite: many parts of SF, Boston & N Chicago, so does some parts of NYC..
The problem however has to do w bigotry & fossil fuel lobby. It create culture now thats difficult to chg..
@@azulaquaza4916 most of you guys are European descendants, you aren't that different from your counterparts in Europe
@@rishavkumar1250 Only the white portion of Americans are European descendants. The Latinos, Blacks, and Asians that make up the rest are not.
@@azulaquaza4916Sadly, the "let's have our own style" is more than often used in America to perpetuate low density / single family detached home and endless low density car centric urban sprawl.
It's a very bad situation that bankrupts cities and ruins the environment and climate, on top of all the social problems that the isolation of single family homes creates.
And if you think that in Canada they live like Europeans, you certainly never set foot in Europe or Canada.
Canada is very much car centric with typical North American urban sprawl, with only very tiny pockets of *slightly* European lifestyle.
The only real difference in Canada is that they are more advanced on public transportation issues compared to the US. But it's still miles away from the level of transit development in Europe.
As for urbanism, Canadian cities build high-rise condos and single family housing, quite different from European style multi-family mid-rise mixed-use denser neighborhoods.
The mere mention of "15 minute city" principles creates a panic and unleashes wild conspiracy theories amongst many on both sides of the border (admittedly it's way worse in the US than in Canada).
So, let's improve cities whatever the style. If we need to wait for a "US style" or "Canada style" architecture to be defined before making any changes, things will never improve.
And frankly I don't see what's wrong with European style cities ; the US, Canada and every city can develop their own architectural styles while still following the European urbanism that works really well.
No one's expecting a copy and paste of Paris' Haussmann or Barcelona's Eixample *architectures* in North America...
But North American architectural variants of these cities' *urbanism* would be great.
I'm really wondering what you meant by "to live like them", where and how do Canadians live like Europeans?
Any European, even in the most European-like pockets in Canada will feel very much in North America...
*I can feel the HAUSSMANN spirit...* 🥰⚜🏗🏫
what a good video you did such a great job! :)) the subject was hope-giving and your angles were able to capture almost every important point to ponder on. Loved it!
I live in the USA in a suburb of Seattle. In 2000 I lived a little bit closer in, about 5 miles away in a community that was on the shores of Lake Washington (the largest Lake in the Seattle area). While living there an amazing opportunity came available where a large piece of land next to the Lake and a big public beach park became available for redevelopment. I had 3 very small children at the time so wasn’t paying attention to how the city made choices about this area. They decided on an “urban village” and there was a lot of talk about New Urbanism. Unfortunately what got built to me was a completely wasted opportunity and a scandal really compared to into potential. For a start, one of the largest parcels right near the lake had a big retail pharmacy with car park built on it. A “big box” style building typical of America, ugly, one story and featureless. This would have been the perfect location for restaurants, cafes and small businesses with outside seating so the community could enjoy the park and lake views. Then the actual mixed-use buildings of apartments and retail were all the same height, about six stories with flat roofs and flat facades with nothing to break up the monotony. They also didn’t have what would seem so obvious, which was good sized balconies for the residents to enjoy the lake view. The result was dull, prison block aesthetics with a wind tunnel effect as there was nothing to break up the tall flat blocks. I was frankly shocked and disappointed and couldn’t believe how short sighted this was. Instead of spurring a beautiful redevelopment (as large numbers of people move into the area and we need more housing) it was really uninspiring. People like ourselves who may have been open to living in the area now had no interest. Why the huge pharmacy got to front the development instead of be further back (if it had to be built) summed up the entire lack of will by the city and developers for a vision and commitment to beauty and livability.
The problem is that usually politicians are the ones that make this type of decisions, and politicians do not seem to have any other prospect in mind than their own careers and bank accounts. So sadly the best plots end up in the hands of the best bet…
Unless the local politicians have vision, the developer will push his/her agenda which is completely financially driven. They build, make their money and move on. What do they care if it is attractive or not? And perhaps a little money under the table to local politicians can buy them more leeway to increase their profit...
@@gingermonette7455but what I don’t understand, with better development and housing - the investment is much more stable and can generate on more profit in the long term. So why do developers not invest in better designs? It’s the mentality of fast ROI instead of stable and consistent Income
I am reminded of an acquaintance who declared that should he ever have his way both banks and pharmacies would be forbidden to occupy corner lots.
I hope that more cities adopt traditional architecture, it really has a warm charm to it.
Totally eye-opening. I didn't know anything about the project before seeing your video. So, that it can actually be done is just wonderful and gives a whole lot of new perspectives. Your excellent work is very much appreciated!
This is amazing. I have been here many times but never realised that it been transformed. It is a lovely area
I m surprised you don t mention an architect named Christopher Alexander and his pupil Nicos Salingaros ,he pioneered this sort of approach largely in the last century but he was ignored and ridiculed by the modernists.Pattern Language and the Timeless Way of Building were some of his books, I recommend you look into him, otherwise you re doing a great job , so many cities have been destroyed by the beauty hating modernists especially after World War 2.
Nikolas salingaros continues to fight, we must continue to send the message because there are many people out there who like traditional or classical architecture, even architecture students but they are indoctrinated by the larger establishment and changes their mind to only believe in contemporary architecture, which I think is wrong and makes it biased. I really gotta thank nikos for continuing to promote traditional architecture because he is minority. So us the few should continue his support.
I live in Columbus, Ohio, and I can't really see being able to do this kind of redevelopment here without tearing out half of every neighborhood and rebuilding it from the ground up. Residential areas are so large and badly segregated from commercial ones that walking is totally impractical most of the time. It'd take a hell of a long time and a ton of money to try and affect this change, even if it would certainly be nice to do so.
I agree, in the United States the challenge is 10 or even 100 times as great. Sprawl has caused so much damage, but I feel many Americans are also attached to their standard, and way, of living - making change more difficult. I don’t want to prescribe one best way of living for everyone, but I feel some towns in the US could improve by redeveloping parts of the inner city and its surrounding neighborhoods with New Urbanism, or just more dense traditional urban fabric. It would require massive investments. With strong NIMBY movements, this becomes an even more difficult challenge. Strong Towns is more knowledgeable about this subject, I hope to do a podcast with them at some point
It's not the scale or the time that is the problem in the US
It's most definitely doable, the problem is the red tape
Even when a few people can get together and agree to transform a place you then have to worry about the contractors coming in from not just out of the region but out of the state entirely to lowball others
Add on top of that the prevalence of foreign owned buildings and investments demanding insane prices so they can extort as much money as they possibly can out of the project and it quickly falls apart. Local governments are the gatekeepers and it's rare for mayors of anything with a population over 500 to have any real power to speak of
The corporatism that infests this country at every possible level is what makes it such a daunting task, don't get me wrong the same exists everywhere else but theirs is also usually nowhere near as concentrated at the top of each political tier like it is here, far more spread out so easier to navigate if you do it right
The worst thing is globalist thinking leads to the destruction of every small shop. We in Germany never had a mall when I was a kid. Now they came up everywhere. Fucking americanisation. Fuck globalism.
@@the_aesthetic_city Americans are less attached to it than you would think. I think also that elections post-COVID and several other movements show that Americans want a society that is different from the current one, and I think that the Urban Form is very much a part of that.
This would be very difficult to implement in the USA partly due the differences in political systems and partly because of infrastructure. In Europe we have centuries of evolutionary development, but the idea has just about 200 years of building new onto nothing that existed. America took paradise and put up a parking lot" with very little concern for aesthetics.
A stunning transformation of the city. These people are changing the lives and inspiring thousands.
We need more of this. 💗
This brings great joy to my heart! Humans definitely deserve to live in the most beautiful and nourishing environments, and anything less than is exactly as you say; unethical. This project represents a great step in the direction of rehabilitating so much of the ugliness we have around us today!
As recognised by the late British philosopher Roger Scruton.
"There is a deep human need for beauty and if you ignore that need in architecture, your buildings will not last."
say thanks to USSR. They are terrible designers..
no worries those monstruosity still rises, in fact, not far far way from this city of Plessis-Robinson which i often cross, they built a "scientific hub" called "the Greater Paris" in wich they builds ten of building of whom no soul or anything close could be percieved. you can check for yourself. So it only take the will power from one man to go from horrible to beautiful
@@shazzshank6393 no
I hope this happens to many other cities, but unfortunately, this town is very close to Paris in a very high value area (on the axis between Versailles and Paris). It was a viable candidate for high urbanism investment, thanks to a mostly unexploited potential. Many cities that would need that kind of refurbishment don't have that much concealed potential.
I agree, though; it's evident we can create/build towns that would be interesting to live in and even visited by tourists if we plan it and think from a long-term viewpoint about such concepts.
Doesn’t make this any less awesome
I'd say there are a lot of areas round Paris could also work.
They start to build more of this type of building in my city and cities around and there are not rich neighborhoods. Banlieues sud de Paris
It must have cost a lot of money I was wondering why they spent so much on this and you have answered that.
We need this for our small towns here in the US. A lot of our jobs went to other countries with the rise of globalism. This made people lose jobs in some of these smaller towns and move to the cities. A lot of them are really nice and beautiful still, though, and there have been new efforts to revitalize some of them. However, we need a bill passed in Congress to provide funding for the towns that are dying and aren't being revitalized.
I 100% agree by rendering your town more beautiful and walkable within 15 minutes, you do uplift the attachment of the people living in it. A long term vision is required. Congratulations to Robinson à Paris ❤.
This is AMAZING !! Especially as a French, I hope this kind of project expands everywhere. Even, not necessarily this beautiful but , a fair amount. Because what you said about beauty at the end is very true.
Faudrait que les gens arrêtent de voter pour des maires communistes (ou mélenchonistes) qui transforment tout ce qu'ils touchent en poubelles à ciel ouvert...
Absolument. Les gens ont besoin de beauté peut-être que dans certaines banlieues cela contribuera à avoir un petit peu moins de problèmes. Encore faut une justice implacable.
It's time to take back our cities all across the western world. No more dreary "commie blocks", give us something beautiful and human, or at least more styled and lively! Greetings from the US.
My late grandfather would have loved this! He was a prominent town planner in the UK and former President of the UK Town Planning Institute. He had a vision for post-war urban regeneration which picked up on many of the points you talk about yet before the erection & failure of the social housing concrete tower blocks of the 60s and 70s as he sadly died in 1949. But I get the feeling he would have loved your video.
only works if you rigorously keep out immigration hoards, they can destroy a town instantly turning it into a single mans drug dealing den...keep them out
These transformations are a tremendous accomplishment that many urban cities in the West will follow! Make cities beautiful again!!!
Hey , I know absolutely nothing of arquiteture and stuff but I do believe firmly in the importance of beauty.
Hope your videos spread so that the rest of the world can take something from these examples.
I got goosebumps. I have been thinking and feeling this way for years, knowing that a human being is a noble being that deserves to be dignified and live in conditions that are worthy of him. And that beauty is not a luxury but the truth of who we are, the nature of our being. Thus, to have that beauty be reflected in our thinking, being, and the world around us, that is only natural... And now, seeing this and hearing your commentary at the end... I am in awe. I knew I wasn't just imagining things... And I am so happy that this is already a reality in this world. Because I know I will see it manifested in my own home town and country and other places in the world. People deserve to see beauty reflected outwards because this beauty has always been housed within us and it's not a luxury, only the truth of who we all are. Thank you!
I know that feeling. To know something is right on a internal, instinctive level, but not having the empirical reasoning behind this knowledge, only to then find it. It’s like finding a treasure.
Thank you for this very informative video.
I have been living in Le Plessis-Robinson for 4 years and I can assure you that the quality of life is incomparable.
We have the feeling of living in a small village. We have the advantages of a big city without the inconveniences.
The city also focuses on a very important family policy, with quality schools, nurseries, and activities that make you want to stay.
Obviously, this tranquility comes at a price and real estate prices are skyrocketing. But it is a real pleasure to live here.
Real estate prices are skyrocketing because this city is sadly not the norm. If only most of the country was built like this.
That's very understandable. It seems like a really nice place to live so people are willing to pay higher prices. Nice places will always become expensive as soon as people realize how nice they are.
Wow! I just love this program and what have been done! Pure excellence
! Much appreciated!
Great urban planning/architecture video. The point of creating a clear distinction between public and private space (8:55) is a very key point that most towns and cities ignore. Netherlands does something similar with bicycles and vehicles by creating clearly defined spaces and pathways. Having defined spaces for purpose that look good makes that space feel so much more livable and usable.
I enjoy living in Le Plessis Robinson. The best city environment I have ever been. Thanks for sharing this video 👍
I so so agree with you - if you make people live and work in places that look like the back of your garage, how can you expect them to be civilised? I have see this again and again in educational architecture and cannot help wondering who signed off on some of these projects - definitely someone who wasn't going to have to live, work, or study in them. Many thanks for posting this video.
Also, I think environment has a huge impact on mental health. When the place you live in is pretty, you feel better. When you can see pretty places and live close to nature it lightens you mood and makes it less likely for you to become depressive. Also, ppl might treat their places with more respect (less vandalism, no trashing).
Yaknow these "ugly" blocks tend to save green space for everyone, in comparison to traditional Europeans blocks. Russian winter is depressing no matter what kind of building you look at
We are just in the final stages of our 'Triple Access Planning - Handbook for Practitioners'. One practitioner pointed me to this video. My goodness - what an incredible inspiration! Thank you so much.
Amazing! Thank you for showing the way.
Glad you highlighted the issue of too much space dedicated to poorly defined semi-private land use. It does appear the clear distinction between pubic and private space is a key feature of successful places. People don't tend to venture into poorly defined places, and stick to the clear public space.
I used to live close to this place, and young people from this city used to call all these buildings “Disney Land” when it was brand new, cuz it was so clean and unreal just like Disney Theme park
Totally agree. Too clean, too similar, wrong era.
@@daelra I agree that buildings look a bit precious and twee, but it's still waaay better than living in an architecturally trendy housing that's ugly as hell. I realized long ago that things architects think are ingenious and cool most people regard as monstrous eyesores.
Things look new and clean when they are new and clean. Patina will come with the years. It can make a beautifully warmly architected area even more beautiful, warm and romantic, whereas a hard modernist architected area will mostly just become ugly and depressive. That is how it seems to me.
@@rolands6900 This is exactly what I think. This type of buildings only get character as time pass by. But with modernists buildings is the other way around: they look so shiny and modern when they're brand new, but as time pass, they only look uglier.
@@daelra i agree clean buildings don't belong in an era of trash...
Tell your mayors so they can do this in your city. This is also a boon to tourism. I personally would visit this place just to see the transformation and architectural beauty.
Exactly!
Thank you for this lecture; you did a great job. The focus here is this incredible success story that has so many implications for people all over the world. This success story should be on every front cover of every magazine and newspapers. Here is an answer so many have been looking for; at least one answer that works. As an architect in NYC we can learn SO much from this towns' strategy.
Thank you for watching!!
All of Europe should adopt this plan! So beautiful
That’s absolutely stunning.
I really thought that things like that are not possible, that they belong to the past. That it’s not possible to build new cities that would be beautiful.
But, man, it’s real!!
Just think of all the transformation we can do if we only want to
As he said, some other cities in Paris region did the same. I actually thought the video was about Val d'Europe when I saw the caption.
The problem is that even though a significant part of this housing is social housing, most of it is most expensive than the original one (Because it is more beautiful and pleasant). Of course, I wish we could do this all over the world. But actually, I feel that we are taking the right way when I see the new housing that is being built here and there.
I’ve been to le plessis robinsson and it’s beautiful and so clean and so green
A really nice place
I love this so much!!❤
Great video! A tangible example that give us hope that, with will and planning, many more successful cases might bloom.
Thank you! There is a real path forward, I hope more planners start to see that
I'm living near that city, and I can tell you that it is not well known in France, for some reason... I find it wonderful, and it proves that there is no fate that dictates the way the modern city should be built.
My home town of Brisbane is on it's way to becoming a concrete jungle with a developer centric city council (more rates, more money for payrises). Let's hope their is a change and a walkable/cyclable village approach like this could be taken.
Thanks for the video, i didn't know any of that ^^. It was interesting and well made.
What a fantastic project; we really need several of these in Germamy done in a similar fashion, adjusted to local regional traditional styles, just like it was done here in this example of the Île-de-France/Paris area.
Unfortunately, the modernist mindset is still incredibly strong here, which has caused numerous terrible projects all across the country.
Da stimme ich absolut zu. Ich habe mittlerweile eine starke Abscheu gegen die Deutsche Architektur und Stadtplanung entwickelt. Nicht nur sind weit mehr historische Gebäude in der Nachkriegszeit vernichtet worden als im 2ten Weltkrieg selbst (Vor allem wegen Flächensanierungen). Nein, auch heute noch halten die Deutschen absurd stark an der Moderne fest im Vergleich zu anderen Ländern und wissen ihre historischen Kulturschätze nicht zu achten/zu schätzen
Correction, the 'communist' mindset is still present in Germany, for example Berlin. F*ng commies destroy everything with their green-left woke ideology.
So true. In Germany this way of building is rejected as "historisierend", meaning it imitates historic styles.
@@citizaniac149 Yeah, is it really "historisierend" to adopt successful elements of old architecture, that proved itself for milennias? The imperialist architecture of the 19th century also borrowed some elements of previous architectural styles (e.g. baroque, renaissance, etc.) but didn't straight copy it but added its own unique flavor to it. So it should also be with todays architecture.
Thank you for this video!!
Such an inspiring story. I loved this video! So many council estates in the UK are in desperate need of this approach.