Biospheric Urbanism: Parisian Boulevards
Year: 2023
Studio: Biospheric Urbanism
Instructor: Bas Smets, Bureau Bas Smets
Team: Sara Segura, Gina Bernotsky, Duke Dunham
Drawing inspiration from the typological interventions of Georges-Eugène Haussmann and Adolphe Alphand, this project envisions climate adaptation in Paris through a comprehensive landscape strategy along the city’s iconic boulevards.
The proposal includes four key landscape infrastructures: berms, trees, bioswales, and permeable surfaces. These green corridors, integrated with the city's existing topography—similar to the way the pre-Haussmannian sewage system once shaped water management—are designed to channel and absorb stormwater runoff. This approach alleviates the burden on Paris’s sewage system, which currently faces overflow risks during heavy rainfall, leading to street flooding. The trees, strategically planted along these corridors, provide critical shade to mitigate urban heat island effects and reduce solar heat gain. Through a process of increased evapotranspiration, nourished by captured rainwater, these trees also contribute to cooling during periods of high temperatures, offering an evaporative cooling effect.
This landscape strategy offers significant thermal comfort, maintaining temperature regulation even with projected warming of up to 3 degrees Celsius. By establishing a network of cooler spaces throughout the city, it ensures equitable access to climate-resilient environments for all residents.
Rue de Rivoli runs East-West and maintains its current asymmetrical composition. Because it sits close to the Seine and at the lowest elevation, it incorporates a larger vegetative footprint to maximally absorb stormwater from higher elevations.Boulevard de la Chappelle runs North-South and maintains its symmetrical composition, incorporating additional lower canopies along the present-day vehicular lanes. The swales channel stormwater runoff, slowing and absorbing surface water before it reaches the Seine.Boulevard Haussmann runs East-West and incorporates an asymmetrical lower canopy along a berm designed to slow and absorb stormwater runoff from the North.
Alphand deployed typological interventions throughout the city. He say these elements as technologies.
This project deploys a similar approach; trees are deployed as cooling technologies that embellish the boulevards stitching the urban fabric.
Swales, trees, berms, and permeable pavements.
Boulevard de la ChappelleBoulevard HaussmannRue de Rivoli