2021/11/17 by Ada Louise Huxtable · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #French Urban and Social Studies
paper · doi:10.4324/9780429335617-8
openalex publication_date 2021/11/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
The future has come to France, and it happened in just 10 years. In the decade from 1965 to 1975, officials of the French national government and the Paris region planned and built five new towns and “restructured” and expanded half a dozen older suburbs within a twenty-mile radius of Paris. First, population and economic growth were projected for the Paris region. Next, a policy of “centralized decentralization” was formulated to channel that growth to specific locations deemed desirable by the French government. In 1965, the master plan for the Paris region was officially adopted, establishing construction areas, open space and a communications network. In the 1960s and 1970s, construction proceeded with joint public and private financing through hybrid companies called Societes d’Economie Mixte. The American visitor finds the new towns the antithesis of the American suburb, aesthetically and socially.