Apur has published the first version of an atlas showing all Parisian street furniture drawn and mapped in Parisian public space.
Paris is one of the capitals whose street furniture is made up of familiar objects which are sometimes disparate, multi-functional or accumulated over time. To study this furniture, its evolution, its location, its design and its uses is a way of understanding Parisian public space.
The Street Furniture Atlas shows the extent to which street furniture has increased, diversified and specialised over the passage of history. In the 19th century, Haussmannian street furniture was designed to meet the codified functional hygiene and safety needs, but also to contribute to embellishing and decorating the streets. In the 20th century, managing the flow of motor vehicles and the rise in mobility brought with it much more anti-parking and signalling furniture leading to a (too) great proliferation. Today, other services are developing in public space : electrical recharging points, waste sorting, shared mobility, greening…
The precision of the drawings shows the extreme diversity and significant development of sometimes more imposing street furniture while other furniture is less ornamental. This reveals and highlights the importance of characteristics that form the unity of Parisian public space : careful design with maximum simplicity, sobriety of materials and colours, where they are placed, the regularity of alignment along road sides, trees, lamp posts…
9 families of furniture are described:
- Furniture providing comfort and services for pedestrians
- Furniture linked to vegetation,
- Cleanliness furniture
- Road protection furniture
- Mobility services furniture
- Information and signage furniture
- Technical furniture
- Sales furniture
- Sports activity furniture
And so you can discover the capital through the interactive map of its urban furniture.
