Grand Paris Executive Summary (PDF 31MB) - Rogers Stirk Harbour ...

8 - INTEGRATING NATURE INTO THE MeTROPOLIS
THROUGH An integrated open-space network
We propose:
Summary
••
A green belt to limit the uncontrolled expansion
of the physical footprint of the metropolis.
••
A green belt as a means to preserve
the natural heritage of the region and
provide a sustainable natural reserve
for the metropolis in the long term.
••
A network of ecological corridors, linking the
region’s important natural spaces and ensuring
the continuity of biospheres and the migration
of species. The barriers that limit these
movements will be overcome.
••
A new forest holding a million trees will
transform the areas that were in the past
disadvantaged by the acoustic shadow of the
airport Roissy CDG. This will become a new
leisure destination for the population of the
north of the city and a natural park. There is the
possibility of harnessing this new carbon sink
and supplying biomass to the new cogeneration
centres of the metropolis.
••
New green arteries linking the rural and
natural “Region” with the urban city centre by
passing above the railway lines following new
linear parks (see “Metropolitan Armatures”).
••
New unbroken pathways for pedestrians
and cycling lanes to enable citizens of the
city to move around safely, serrounded
by vegetation and shaded by trees.
••
New public networks in the city centre,
linking the existing open spaces of
the metropolis with the new.
••
Re-connection of the banks of the Seine and of
the metropolis’s canals, providing new corridors
designed to enable continuous pedestrian
movement along these “blue networks”.
••
Transformation of the big boulevards in the
centre of Paris into green axes, giving the
priority to walking, cycling and public transport.
• • The idea of transforming the under-optimised
surface area of the rooftops of Paris into a
large green carpet, creating approximately
391km2 of green rooftop space and provide
significant benefits in terms of well-being,
temperature, ecology and rain-water collection.
xviii Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners / London School of Economics / Arup
February 2009