Work

A green city takes root

Paris has committed to reversing it's place as a grey city - in favor of green - with Mayor Hidalgo backing a number of initiatives to keep pace with other EU capitals. The 500 'school streets' - with green spaces piggy-backing the concept - is one such plan. Streets in the capital with schools will continue to be closed to traffic over coming years in an effort to make the streets safer, healthier and bring nature back into the city.

In the shock of the change the first efforts to reintroduce nature for cities can be timid with the occassional planter box and slightly expanded garden bed. Invincible Summer suggests Paris can start in the best possible way by removing bitumen and concrete and contributing to their 50% permeable surfaces target for 2030 from the outset. Without cars the need for extensive hard surfaces departs along with them and means opportunities for breaking the soil barrier and letting nature take it's course again.

Proposal

One such school street is Rue Saint-Roch in the 1st arrondissement. It is home to École Notre-Dame Saint-Roch and a creche. Today it is a one-way street for most of it's length with most local traffic using routes to the east and west. It represents a 1500m2 opportunity to connect established or traveling species populations of the Siene and gardens of the Lourvre to parks further north and to provide a calm and healthy zone for locals and schools students in a bustling city.

As Gilles Clement explains, "it is important to have a design. But that is not the first thing. It's plants and animals.' Here we see an opportunity to remove half of the existing hard surfaces (material to be used again elswhere in the city) on the western side of the street. This new space can support local plant species adapted to city conditions at ground level and also form a base for vertical gardens on buildings (part of another proposal). Together they form habitat for the city's 1300+ inventoried animal species and insects.

We suggest:

• Allowing nature to select plants at ground level where conditions and local seed and animal movement determines growth.Expected species include nettle, elder and hazel (among others).
• Planting of locally adapted street trees and climbers for the mid and top tier green elements including sycamore, hornbeam, old man's beard and oleander (for warming cities).
• Subsidised plants and planters for residents and businesses to encourage plants at street level and on balconies and walls above (where vertical gardens have not been installed with the city).
• Funneling of local rooftop rainwater into concealed storage tanks at street level to feed into drip irrigation for nature beds during dry spells.