Parks and gardens and large scale landscape features, resulting for the most part from the major works of Haussmann and Alphand, were created to embellish Paris and render it more healthy under the Second Empire, and now form a preserved and enhanced legacy.
Nature in its different forms, participates in the Parisian landscape and provides a number of essential services for everybody’s quality of life, by participating in the climatic cooling process, managing rain water, fixing fine particles and maintaining biodiversity.
In 2020, nature in Paris benefited the food supply, the environment, providing pleasure and beauty. It is a 21st century public facility.
With climatic issues, the necessity to preserve biodiversity and city-dwellers’ needs for nature, reinforcing the place of nature in the city is an essential issue in order to make Paris a welcoming city.
Therefore Apur firstly analysed the greening potential of public spaces with regard to historical, morphological, ecological and climatic criteria.
Secondly the agency designed scenarios for the potential planting of roadside trees and greening open ground in streets in connection with City of Paris departments.
The first theme enabled the major road system planted with trees to be reinforced.
- Action 1 / Recreate the promenade character of existing double lines of trees. Action 2 / Reconstruct the historical double lines of trees that have disappeared
- Action 3 / Improve the landscape quality of greened pavements that are over 6m wide.
- Action 4 / Plant trees along unplanted roads that are over 19m wide
- Action 5 / Plant trees along roads in the outskirts (faubourgs) of the city
The second theme addresses contributions to creating local gardens.
- Action 6 / To green areas around schools.
- Action 7 / To green streets adjacent to parks, gardens, cemeteries and outdoor sports grounds.
- Action 8 / To green short residential streets.
Other work completes this landscaping approach for greening the streets of Paris which deals with urban squares and forests as well as the large specific sites among which are the Boulevard Périphérique ring-road and its surrounding areas and the River Seine embankments (in liaison with the Seine Workshop and the Boulevard Périphérique Workshop).
With contributions by:
- Patricia Pelloux, Deputy Director, engineer - urbanist
- Yann-Fanch Vauléon, landscape architect, Project Manager
Cartography and statistical processing:
- Marie-Thérèse Besse, geomatician, cartographer
- Yann-Fanch Vauléon, landscape architect, Project Manager
