Did you enjoy your visit to Paris’s new large park? The pathways, the greenery, the pleasant space to relax or recreate. Before that we saw the Cardinet sector in its last stages of construction. Now its time to wander through the completed and occupied Avenue de Clichy sector.

It was finished and occupied in the last decade, although there are a few legacy buildings. The street layout ties in with the traditional Paris street pattern to the east. That enables existing residents to easily view and access the new park spaces. In this area, aggressively modern buildings sit a more traditional Parisian streetscape.

The north end of the development is dominated by Renzo Piano’s Palais Justice, a huge tower I felt was more designed to impress motorists on the Peripherique rather than relate to the neighbourhood it anchors.

Avenue Clichy’s east side is traditional – albeit rapidly being gentrified – neighbourhood and streetfront. The new project has more open spaces that look at first glance to be traditional but are very large, and in my mind bleak. Under this area is resident parking:

Streets running off Clichy are deliverately narrow, with sharp turns. Note the lush steel planter frames:

Parisian truck drivers are expected to have way more skills than ours:

Where there are no bollards or planters, motorists tried parking on the walkways:

This street has some legacy buildings on the left, new ones on right. The street is only semi-open; the steel cages are holding pens for trees and shrubs being planted. Note graffiti.

The Ibis Hotel is another holdover from a previous attempt at a new urban project here. It is conspicuously not starchitecture.

And it somehow lost its street, and needs this umbilical cord:

Is a new glass podium being added to the hotel?:

Residential building with allotment gardens, and curious glass louvres on the exterior, a bit like jalousie windows:

The buildings are built around courtyards. Sometimes these courtyards are completely encircled by a building, in other cases several structures work to define the courtyard. These were semi-public spaces, requiring an access code to enter:

The major theme and emphasis of this project is how Paris will meet its climate change goals. All buildings had some sort of sun and wind shades. This building had sliding glass panels to enclose the large balcony making it usable longer (Ottawa builders take note !) plus sliding exterior screens on other windows:

Wood panels and accents were frequent in this phase of Clichy-Batignolles:

This apartment building has roll shutters over the main windows and green glass brise soleils providing a second skin on the tower:

Metal mesh panels, a number of which slide open …

Fins on the exterior to cast shadows:

All the exterior panels of this building was perforated:

 

Whew, that takes us about half way along Avenue Clichy. Our walk will continue.