Italie 13
Italie 13 is the name of a large urbanism project in Paris which started in the 1960s and was interrupted in the 1970s. Its purpose was to profoundly modify the structure of some areas of the 13th arrondissement, mainly around the Avenue d'Italie which inspired its name. The partially completed project led to the creation of numerous towers in the south of the arrondissement, notably Les Olympiades.
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.
As the towers were being successively erected, public criticism grew increasingly harsh, a view which was later shared by professionals and politicians. In 1974, the new French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, decided to stop the Italie 13 project.
The brutalist design of the towers, formerly seen as revolutionary progress, failed, for some, to promote a positive image of the 13th arrondissement. This is especially true since, being built on a hill, they are more visible than other projects such as the Front de Seine towers. The bland aspect of those buildings has massively damaged the image of towers, in general, among Parisians. Inhabitants of the towers are themselves more ambivalent. Their judgement depends widely on the building they live in. Indeed, while the exterior aspect of those towers is very similar, their layouts, amenities and general standing vary enormously from one to another.
Moreover, the operating costs of these buildings are very expensive compared to more traditional Hausmanian buildings. They were designed with affluent buyers in mind, but at this time, affluent buyers thought that these were too far from the west of Paris where they worked. Most of them failed to sell out and were soon filled with Asian refugees who found available housing. Sometimes, up to 4 families crowded some apartment space, and for many of them paying the operating costs and rent was a problem. In the meantime, Parisians started to leave the city center and its apartments to buy individual houses in the suburbs, leaving some towers in dire conditions.
Nevertheless, the Olympiades esplanade has maintained a rather important business and commercial role, something which is not true in other projects in Paris and its suburbs. The arrival of the Asian community at the end of the 1970s has brought an important and growing vitality to this area.
In recent years, the area is undergoing (like most of Paris city center) quick gentrification. Most towers have undergone renovation works, and are now up to the latest security norms, urban renewal is taking place below the towers at street level with help from the municipality. (Works on Olympiades and Place de Vénétie is underway, Villa d'Este should follow soon). As a result, real estate prices in this particular neighborhood is up steadily even if it is still a cheap neighborhood compared to other places in Paris. The high quality of the buildings which were created for affluent people means that flats are comfortable, have a nice unobstructed view and a lot of light (which is a rare luxury in Paris). As a result, some more affluent people are starting to consider again this habitat.
