During the 1960s; building sites in Paris became spaces that expressed preoccupations about urban transformation; labour immigration and national identity. As new buildings and infrastructure changed the city; building sites revealed the substandard living and working conditions of migrant construction workers in France. Moreover; construction was the touchstone in debates about the dangers of urban life; and triggered action in communities whose districts faced demolition. Paris Under Construction explores the social; political and cultural responses to construction work and urban transformation in the Paris metropolitan region during the 1960s. This examination of a decade of intensive building work considers the ways in which the experience of construction was mediated; produced and reproduced through a range of complex and sometimes contradictory representations. The building sites that produced the new Paris are no longer visible; and were perhaps never intended to be seen; yet different groups closely observed and recorded construction; giving it meanings that went beyond specific building activities. The research draws extensively on French newspaper; television and radio archives; and delves into rarely examined trade union material. Paris Under Construction gives voice to the witnesses of—and participants in—urban transformation who are usually excluded from architectural and urban history.
2015-12-02 2015-12-02File Name: B019CWABAA
Review
