The Evil Plan for Paris

Sources incoming (24 hours):

This is a video about Corbusier's plan for Paris, the Plan Voisin.

It's a video about a masterplan that could have happened in Paris, but didn't.

Corbusier is one of the most influential architects in the 20th century, and his plans for Paris would have changed the city forever.

Tags: Paris, Europe, Urban Planning, Architecture Masterplans.

Geolayers maps come from map tiler, and Google earth has also provided fantastic assets.

[hoogyoutube]

Corrections/Nuances:

Paris population is referencing population of metropolitan region.

Student of Corbusier is student of modernism school, not actual student. No excuse for that, that's just bad writing on my part.

[imonymous]

Le Corbusier's ideas seem impractical on a real world scale, but he would have been a kick ass Cities: Skylines streamer.

[Donzemiaky]

As a city planning student, we study Le Corbusier and his modernism influenced predecessors as a foundation of what not to do

[mjr_schneider]

Le Corbusier really is the supervillain of architecture. You get the feeling all his plans were designed specifically to look cool when looking down on tiny models of them and not to actually be nice to live in.

[meneither]

There is a reason architecture and city planning are different fields.

[knocturna]

Nebula really did snatch up all the urban planning YouTubers.

[eh]

Interesting that Corbusier designed for himself an airy, large house in a garden that most people would be glad to live in.

[InfinityR]

As a Hongkonger myself I finally understood why does Le Corbusier’s plan rang so many bells in my head. That’s because Hong Kong follows a lot of Le Corbusier’s planning principles for many New Towns that are built after the 70s. All these skyscrapers lining up in a near grid like manner are housed with people, and with parks, malls and transit hubs near close proximity. Everything is walkable and conviennent, and most of the time you can get by without a car, but it’s also soul crushingly dull and suffocating because all you see are just the top of the buildings and not a vast open sky.

[JoshuaFagan]

I once had a class in my university on the history of art and architecture from the Parthenon to the present, and I distinctly remember the day we talked about Le Corbusier. There was such an overwhelmingly negative response from almost all the students. It's rare that someone can still garner as much hatred 100 years after their death.

[amsterdamandco]

The Notre Dame that's randomly burning in the corner had me LOL.

[GojiMet]

The more I see master plans with order and symmetry, the more I think that OCD plays a big role. The "feeling" comes first (the orderly streets and buildings), then the justification ("This is the most efficient way, the most futuristic thing, etc...").

[vianabdullah]

If Le Corbusier has million haters, then I'm one of them.
If Le Corbusier has one hater, then I'm THAT ONE.
If Le Corbusier has no haters, that means I'm dead.

[Grandesecole]

Come to Seoul. Le Corbusier's ideas literally came to life. Such a depressing cityscape.

[dan_]

Funny enough, a professor of mine discussed this topic on Brasilia. A friend of his left anecdote of the living conditions there:
the people go to work, and it is always cold. there is no life here. And once the weekend arrives, the streets lie empty, as all jumped on trucks and planes to head back to Rio de Janeiro. Once Monday comes, the streets go full again, but the life is still cold.

[deepaksanaka]

I'm from India and visited Chadigarh enough times to comment on it. It is India's first planned city designed exclusively by Corbusier. It has a grid layout and is possibly the worst city in India for pedestrians. It's grid layout made distances long forcing almost everyone to have a car. Traffic is getting worse every year because population is growing and they need cars to move around.

[SeanA]

God. Why can't architects just be normal people?

[faded_ink]

It’s like architects are intentionally trying to build cyberpunk dystopias.

(Edit: architects are mad at me)

[lian]

GOD I LOVE FLAUNTING MY WEALTH BY DISRUPTING THE BEAUTY OF CENTURIES OLD ARCHITECTURE

[ritris]

I think a big issue that's overlooked with all these 'futuristic' cities, is that they completely disregard the inter-sub-communities that naturally find their places within grander communities, these cities are all designed with focus on the business and consumerism aspect of society and not the communities within a cities boundaries.

[AP-yxmm]

Love how Le Corbusier said Belgrade was an ugly city, because it had so many different architectural styles...