"THE NEIGHBORHOOD NEEDED CLEANING UP..."

 

BUT NOT IN THE WAY MEANT FOR THE TRENCHES OF WORLD WAR I.

One could 'renovate' on a human scale, but this delirious and oppressive gigantism came instead." 

-- Léo Malet, 1978, 

Preface to new edition of Brouillard au pont de Tolbiac, 1956

("Fog on Tolbiac Bridge")

The towers hover over little houses. 

Meant to announce utopia, the towers seemed symbols of soulless

technocracy and their apartments did not sell.

"Will we still find what used to be

the living heart of the neighborhood...

workers and craftspeople, peaceful, humble folk, modest marginals [... ] little whores with flowers in their hair [... ] people who were not very smart, probably, but who were human [... ] they no longer have a place in this technocratic universe." 

-- Brouillard sur le pont de Tolbiac, continued  

That rebuff let refugees from the Vietnam war find decent, affordable housing. Other Asians followed and "Chinatown" was born.

(From 1975)

                                          Zoom         

            Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration  

Poster announcing an exhibit on immigration of southeast Asians

Ramsay Casadesus Rawson 

The horizontal roofs were part of the original project, so recall pagodas by coincidence. 

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