Former student of the École normale supérieure and Sciences Po, David Brunat has been a member of the cabinet of several ministers. In addition a writer and communication advisor, he notably published Giovanni Falcone, a lord of Sicily , which appeared in 2014 in Les Belles Lettres.
Collateral victim of the fall of Benjamin Griveaux, the " Central Parkparisien " will have fizzled . Put on very uncertain rails, this wacky project will remain at the station, and that of the East will continue. Barely invested, Agnès Buzyn was quick to bury this rural whim once and for all. It will thus avoid a useless stolen green wood.
The greenery barely reaches 6% of the Parisian surface, which is obviously skinny.The question of greenery in the capital remains open, however. And it was basically, if it were necessary to concede one, the merit of this fantastic project that to draw attention to this respiratory insufficiency of the capital linked to a chronic deficiency in chlorophyll. Paris, it is said, lacks green spaces. If we ignore the two woods that border the capital to the west and east, the greenery barely reaches 6% of the Parisian surface. It is obviously skinny.
Read also: A Central Park instead of the Gare de l'Est, the idea makes you smile
Having once lived in London and studied a few flights of stone and antlers from Hyde Park, I know the importance of these green lungs in the heart of cities. Paul Morand, comparing the lush and grassy luxuriance of London with the parsimony of Paris in the matter, exclaimed about the gardens of Paris: "It is never a piece of countryside, it is a flowerpot on a balcony . " Obviously exaggerated but not baseless. And that was long before the question of the place of nature and greenery in the city in the context of the climate transition was invited into the “citizen debate” - an ugly expression that would have made this sparkling designer laugh.
Will the future of cities, and of Paris in particular, pass through gardens and parks? You might think so. Finding the right balance between stone and green, mineral and plant, grassy areas and concrete areas is certainly one of the most exciting challenges of our time for architects, urban planners and public decision-makers who have the mission to think and bring about the city of tomorrow.
The garden is much more than a simple aesthetic ornament or an ecological necessity: it is a philosophy, a wisdom.Eager to work towards the extension of the hut area, the candidates in Paris compete with imagination and green proposals. At the risk of stepping on feet and flower beds. In doing so, they remind us that a city is not just buildings and avenues, monuments and shops, vehicles and people, an atmosphere of asphalt and concrete; it is also a territory of trees and grass, flower beds, thickets, hills ... and the animals that live there.
To tell the truth, the garden is much more than a simple aesthetic ornament or an ecological necessity: it is a philosophy, a wisdom. A feast for the soul as much as for the eyes. An art of living for body and mind. And a sting for building intelligence; think for example of the promises of what is called biomimicry, where we are inspired by the art of nature and greenery to build, a bit like in the past we were inspired by the flight of birds to make take off the first aircraft.
May they continue, these candidates, to imagine new rural lands in the heart of cities! Politics is, in its own way, the art of gardening.Recall that Plato founded his school in a garden, just like the friendly Epicurus. Those of Babylon, sumptuously suspended, were among the ancient wonders of the world. Paradise lost is also a garden. Eden Parc! English, he celebrates freedom, well-tempered profusion. French-style, it magnifies order and geometric discipline: always, the plant is inhabited by the spirit. Charmilles, lawn bowls, fine lawns; trellises: so many opportunities for dialogue between nature and culture.
May they continue, these candidates, to imagine new rural lands in the heart of cities! Sowing, planting, plowing, growing and (sometimes) harvesting: politics is, in its own way, the art of gardening.
And, whether or not they aspire to an Elyos destiny, may they help restore the vernacular majesty of these Champs-Elysees which are no longer, alas, today, in the hearts of Parisians, the most beautiful avenue in the world celebrated throughout the inhabited universe, but a vast and indigestible shopping mall deprived of its legendary age.
It is to give back to this marvelous perspective all its radiance, its power of attraction, desire and dream, that the architect Philippe Chiambaretta imagined on behalf of the Champs-Élysées Committee a very beautiful and promising project of reinvention of this mythical artery, baptized with the name we know today from the end of the reign of Louis XIV. And it's time to let as many people know as it already exists, this Parisian Central Park : 15 hectares of greenery that sprawls below the Champs-Élysées, but poorly kept, disliked and ill-famed, while they just want to relive a new tree and flower life full of charm and visitors.
Man is a thinking reed but he needs oaks and many species with vigorous barrels to feel goodNotice to amateurs: the project of this architect (on which we would like the candidates in Paris to comment) and more broadly the history and memory of the "Fields" are the subject of a superb exhibition at the Pavillon de l'Arsenal , to be discovered until May 10, 2020.
Man is a thinking reed but he needs oaks and many species with vigorous barrels to feel good; it needs grass like ruminants, trees like birds, and not just paving stones and paving stones, bitumen and pebbles. Bold towers and new facades that rise in the sky, certainly. But on condition that we plant, sow, mow, prune ...
Being both a city rat and a field rat (Elyos but not only) is not a bohemian fantasy: it is an ideal of life, and a certain idea of the modern, viable and living city.