Digital artist imagines Paris cityscapes if Le Corbusier had had his way

Hendryk

Banned
Between 1922 and 1925, Le Corbusier had, with the sponsorship of car manufacturing company Voisin, imagined a radical urbanistic overhaul of Paris, based on a core of concrete skyscrapers. The project is fairly well-known among AH historians, and I post a scale model of it for reference:

Plan%20Voisin%20-%20Paris.jpg

Digital artist Alain Bublex has come up with images of what Paris would like today if Le Corbusier's plan had been implemented. Instead of the Haussmanian buildings we're familiar with, glass and concrete skyscrapers; instead of winding, pedestrian-friendly streets, broad freeway-style avenues with a maze of over- and underpasses. Basically, something between Tokyo and Los Angeles.

Plan%2BVoisin%2Bde%2BParis%2B-%2BV2%2Bcirculaire%2Bsecteur%2B12%2B(Louvre%2BOp%C3%A9ra),%2B2007.jpg

The Louvre-Opéra neighborhood

Plan+Voisin+de+Paris+-+V2+circulaire+secteur+25+%28Place+Vend%C3%B4me%29,+2007.jpg

Place Vendôme

Plan+Voisin+de+Paris+-+V2+Circulaire+Secteur+6+%28Saint+Germain+des+Pr%C3%A9s%29,+2004+.jpg

Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Plan+Voisin+de+Paris+-+V2+Circulaire+Secteur+C23+%28Champs-Elys%C3%A9es%29,2004.jpg

Champs-Elysées​

I think he overdoes it a little with the Gotham-style metallic arches in a couple of pics, but overall it looks pretty plausible. The dizzying profusion of advertising signs is a nice touch.
 
V-J

V-J

Finn said:
It looks hideous. I'm glad Le Corbusier didn't have his way.
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It actually doesn't look too bad, in an average future city/all built in the last thirty years way - and I suspect that because it doesn't look too bad, the artist has put a little too much into creating it as he would like it to have been.

But even if it could have eventually looked like that, would you destroy large sections of central Paris to create it? Lord no.
 
Utgard96

Utgard96

Mmm...

A bit Ginza meets La Défense, but quite good-looking overall. It's not acceptable knowing they´d have to butcher Paris to build this, but if it were a whole new city, it'd be quite nice.
 
MrP

MrP

Banned
An interesting albeit unnerving idea. The profusion of advertising reminds me of Athens' ring-road.
 

Wanderlust

V-J said:
It actually doesn't look too bad, in an average future city/all built in the last thirty years way - and I suspect that because it doesn't look too bad, the artist has put a little too much into creating it as he would like it to have been.

But even if it could have eventually looked like that, would you destroy large sections of central Paris to create it? Lord no.
Click to expand...

Mmm, dystopian Cyberpunk (tm) Paris :cool:

I'm actually glad they didn't go through with it. Too many cities already look more or less the same.
 

Hendryk

Banned
Wanderlust said:
Mmm, dystopian Cyberpunk (tm) Paris :cool:

I'm actually glad they didn't go through with it. Too many cities already look more or less the same.
Click to expand...
Quite. If one were to look at these pictures without the captions, they'd think they were generic cityscapes from some existing megalopolis or other. They don't particularly stand out in terms of urban ugliness. It's just that in OTL downtown Paris was thankfully spared this fate (now, the outskirts of Paris are another story).
 
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