Does the Paris of the Olympics foreshadow the city of tomorrow?

Contrary to all expectations, Paris may never appear as beautiful, clean and cheerful as during the Olympic Games. After months of anxiety, everything went great. The capital, full of infectious joy, resonated in all the languages ​​of the world. We went on an on-time and crowded metro, Club France had the air of an oasis in the middle of the desert, and monuments have never been so grand as they have been turned into sporting venues. It is enough to restore the image of the capital, this extremely dense, noisy and polluted car.

Globalized growth

Not so fast. Like all cities around the world, often more populated than it is, Paris suffers from a race to “obesity,” according to philosopher and urban planner Thierry Pacquiao, author of a fascinating essay. The measure and excess of cities (CNRS Éditions, to be published on September 12). A trend towards gigantism made possible by the mechanization of agricultural work, rural migration, and the development of transportation. For nearly two centuries we have been able to produce far more anywhere and consume elsewhere. “At the same time, the idea is developing that real life exists in the city, and that the bigger it is, the more opportunities you have to find a job, an apartment, a friend… We managed to break away from our lives. scale and our timeline will allow us to dictate the rhythm of the city.” From Tokyo to New York, New Delhi to Lagos, cities are growing, expanding or shrinking. They are similar too.

“For us, one place is now equivalent to another, as long as we can consume what we’re looking for there. All this deprives us of topophilia, understand: the friendship of places. However, we must know where we are, where we stand and where our roots are. There is nothing reactionary about saying this. Returning to the human scale means above all to restore the urban quality that has disappeared. The neighborhood, for example, is again highlighted as a place of acquaintance.”

Plural city

Of course, but the numbers? Are there thresholds beyond which cities do not operate? Maximum number of inhabitants Yes, but not essential, Judges Thierry Pacquiao. “A person does not live on a square meter, more than a number of doctors or shops on a square meter bring happiness. We are looking for quality that everyone defines and measures in their own way.” Enough to open up dizzying questions, but also horizons where anything seems possible. What if the city of tomorrow was plural and modular, as if to adapt to everyone’s desires and allow for reconnection? “We need to connect territoriality with temporality, which should translate into different human propositions. Some, or the same person, at different times of their lives, dream of a city with 3,000 inhabitants, others – with a million.”

Life force

Hence the desire to move away from standardization and connect with the specifics of each city. It is also an essential shift to adapt our cities to climate change and to remember the power of mutual aid. “Our advantage in France is having 35,000 municipalities. So that the smallest can offer the same quality of life as the older ones, I call for the development of bioregions, continues Thierry Paco. Neither administrative nor technical, they will arise from the power of life, including people, and the capacity of all that make it up to flourish together.” Like a new contract with our lands, our waters, our forests and the species that host them. But how do we know we’ve succeeded?

“With fullness, which should be our compass, this sense of calm, peace, and gentleness.” Almost another world, distant and yet so desirable. What if this right size of cities depends on the right size of who we are? “We are all from somewhere, even the homeless, even the migrants from Calais. We cannot be stateless because we carry our homeland and longing for it within us.” And try as we might, it cannot be solved in consumerist decor, whatever that is.