Italie 13 - Origins of The Project

Origins of The Project

The Italie 13 project was one of the answers proposed by urbanists to the insalubrity of some areas of the city, mainly the 13th arrondissement which was generally considered to be "badly built". Raymond Lopez, the advising architect at the Paris city hall, and his assistant Michel Holley, considered this renovation to be an opportunity to completely reorganize those areas, in the spirit of the Athens charter and Le Corbusier. This meant that new construction should be tall in order to liberate more space at the ground level and to bring a better luminosity to apartments, and separating heavily traveled roads from smaller local roads and pedestrian areas. Other principles from Le Corbusier, such as surrounding towers with parks were, however, put aside.

The guiding plan of urbanism (Plan d'urbanisme directeur,) written in 1959 and applied in 1961, concisely summarizes that new conception of the city: "urban layout should not be defined anymore by streets, but actually by built-up structures, which should themselves be guided by functional considerations". The Olympiades district is a perfect illustration of this program.

Thanks to strong political support following the creation of the Fifth Republic in 1958, the Italie 13 project began quickly. The city council approved it in 1966 and charged the private sector with completing it. The project operated on a territory of 87 hectares between Place d'Italie, avenue de Choisy and Paris's outlying boulevards. Its ambition was to build 16,400 accommodations, and 150,000 m² of commercial and business space. It also included the construction of new schools and gardens.

Towers were supposed to be approximately the same height, about 30 floors. Holley felt that towers should respect the principle of height unity according to Parisian traditions.