Paris, origin of urban modernism

ABSTRACT

The significant change in urban space in Paris during the Second French Empire is an example of modern urban and architectural planning. Paris was modernized by a powerful planning entity, represented by the state, as well as a clear goal and consistent plan to realize the city beautification plan. The modernization process of Paris was a high-level movement that created a new urban culture through physical urban space planning, which is a combination of ‘urbanism’, meaning French urban planning, and ‘modernism’, meaning urban art movement. The modernization of Paris is defined by the concept of ‘urban modernism’. The urban modernism of Paris is a movement with strong norms aimed at city beautification that has sustainable characteristics in urban space planning. Consequently, urban modernism remains the basis of modern and future Paris city planning and plays an important role in maintaining the unique urban cultural identity of Paris.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban modernism
• Paris urban planning in the second French empire (1852–1870)
• urban and architectural planning
• urban culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government, Ministry of Science, and ICT (MSIT) (No. 2022R1F1A1065442).