Payments of town planning of Paris

The development of architecture and town planning with Paris was subjected during the centuries to several payments of architecture and successive town planning which aimed at limiting in particular the height of the buildings, their provision compared to the street, the width of the streets or the general orientation given to the development of Paris.

By providing a framework to the construction of new buildings and new axes, the payments took part in the installation of current Paris. One can however consider that they are also the result of the evolution of mentalities.

The knowledge of principal the provision of these plans often makes it possible to guess the period of construction of a building. Thus in the image opposite, the Bow-window out of brick in the foreground cannot be built before 1895 while the tower with the background lies within the scope fixed by the directing Town-planning of 1967.

General information on the payments of town plannings

The payments define in particular the gauge authorized for the buildings, i.e. the height of the frontage and the roofs, according for example to the width of the street or the district.

They can also regulate the projections on streets (balconies, cornices…), for safety reasons or of esthetics.

Whereas the old payments were satisfied to frame private initiatives, the modern payments take part in the launching of immense operations of town planning directed by the public authorities. They are placed on a scale much broader: they as a whole consider the city by defining different rules according to the zones considered.

Paris is not the only city to be itself equipped with payments of town planning. Manhattan, for example, developed on a squaring of streets and avenues defined by a commission in 1811. Later, the law of zoning of 1916, by authorizing the construction very great height in medium of piece but not at the edge of the street, encouraged the construction of scrapes-ciels with cusps such as the Empire State Building.

Payments of town plannings of Paris during the centuries

Since Henri IV until the period haussmannienne

One of the first payments of architecture and town planning is the edict of 1607 , promulgated by Henri IV. By fear of the fires, article 4 of this edict prohibits constructions in wood side, the overhangs and limit the projections.

Sixty years later, the ordinance of the August 18th 1667 fixes the maximum height at the height of the Parisian cornices to 16 meters: this limitation of the gauge has hardly varied for this time in the center of Paris with regard to the frontage on street. The ordinance is placed in the continuity of the edict of 1607 by prohibiting the Encorbellement S and while introducing, one year after the large fire of London, the obligation to cover with plaster to lime the wood sides. Thus, wood the sides of the two houses Rebirth of the 11 and 13, rue François-Miron, were plastered beginning of the 17th century until 1967.

The royal declaration of the April 10th 1783 and the letters patent of the August 28th 1784 proceed in this way. They intervene more and more at the level urban and more only architectural. On the one hand these texts make depend for the first time the height on the buildings on the width on the street, for reasons of hygiene:

In addition the texts of 1783-1784 regulate the height of the roofs which was not treated by the ordinance of 1667, to the risk to let build not very esthetic and dangerous upper floors. The roofs must from now on be registered below a diagonal to 45 degrees on the basis of the sewer of the roof, with a maximum height.

The payments of years 1850 still specify the aspect of the frontages. The prefect Haussmann thus recommends to make sure that, within the same small island, the lines of the balconies and separations of stages form continuous lines from one building to another. On the large arteries, the use of the stone of size is strongly recommended. Thus sets up the aspect of the avenues and boulevards haussmanniens, characterized by the horizontal lines.

As for the fixing of the Gauge, the payment of the July 27th 1859 supplements the payments of 1783-1784 for the new ways of great width which one is boring in Paris. In the streets of more than 20 meters of width, the frontages can from now on reach 20 meters height. The roofs remain limited by a diagonal to 45 degrees.

Haussmann also fixes, for reasons of hygiene, rules of architecture relating to the minimal height of the stages (2,60 m), to the size of the interior court and the height of the building on court.

The Payment of 1884

This payment results from a decree promulgated the July 23rd 1884. One of its principal promoters is Jean-Charles Alphand, one of the former collaborators of Haussmann. It makes following the decree of the July 22nd 1882.

the gauge . The decree of 1884 slightly raises the authorized gauge:

The roofs from now on are registered not in a diagonal with 45 degrees, but in an arc of circle whose ray depends on the width of the way. This provision makes it possible to build an additional stage in withdrawal of the frontage.

hygiene . The courses interior on which give inhabited parts must have a surface at least equal to 30 Mr.

Since 1882, a payment authorizes the construction of bow-windows whereas the projections had been prohibited on the Parisian houses for several centuries. It should however start only on the noble floor, i.e. in general the second, and it cannot continue above the cornice. Lastly, its maximum width is of 40 cm and one must be able to dismount it. The bow-windows out of metal and wood multiply.

In 1893, the Town of Paris authorizes the construction of bow-windows out of brick or stone of size. This new possibility will allow the frontages certain buildings to take an increasingly corrugated form.

The Payment of 1902

The payment of roadway system on the heights and projections in the Town of Paris is promulgated in a decree of the August 13rd 1902. Its principal author is Louis Bonnier, Architect-voyer of the Town of Paris.

the gauge . When the street has a width higher than 20 meters, the height authorized on street can exceed the traditional gauge in some limiting. The bow-windows and various other types of projections can continue above the cornice. Lastly, above the cornice, one can from now on add roofs fitting in an arc of a eighth of circle being prolonged by an oblique to 45°. In the case of a great piece, the height in the center can thus be very high. Henri Sauvage makes profitable this provision in buildings with steps such as that of the Rue Vavin in the VI {{E}} district.

hygiene . The payment imposes the respect of a proportion between the height of the buildings and the volume of the not built parts (streets, course interior). It is a question of supporting the air circulation and of fighting against the insalubrity denounced by several studies in certain small islands of Paris.

The payment of 1902 made it possible to the architects to give more imagination to the Parisian roofs. They could add cornices and roofs to the most various forms at the top of the buildings, in agreement with the esthetic designs of the time and in particular those of the Art nouveau. In this respect the payment marks an additional step in the progressive abandonment of the uniform alignment of the buildings, characteristic of the time haussmannienne.

The directing Town-planning of 1967 (PUD)

The payment of 1902 was officially replaced only the February 6th 1967 by the adoption of a law validating the Directing Town-planning. In practice this plan was already applied since 1961. Written as of 1959, it resulted from the reflection carried out in the Fifties by town-planners like Raymond Lopez and Michel Holley, under the direction of the president of the municipal council Bernard Lafay.

One century after Haussmann, the PUD seems to find the same ambitions and the same means. The Plan does not relate to the center of Paris, but wants to reorganize the peripheral districts by the construction of axes of fast motor vehicle traffic. The inner boulevards which occupy the place of old the Mur of the Farmers general, for example, would become a true by-pass.

The PUD distinguishes several zones from activities in Paris: zones of businesses, zones administrative, university zones, centres of population…

The gauge is limited in theory to 31 meters in the center and 37 meters out of peripheral. However the PUD will allow also the construction of the districts of turns of the the Face-of-Seine and the XIII {{E}} district.

The PUD finally envisages to renovate the unhealthy or “misused” small islands which will be transformed into green areas, sports grounds or districts of turns or bars.

The Plan of occupation of the grounds of 1977 (POS)

Since 1974, the PUD is revised. The February 28th 1977, the Town of Paris approves a Plan occupation of the grounds which, actually, is already applied since 1974. This plan is supplemented by the Master development plan and town planning of the area Île-de-France (SDAURIF).

The POS of 1977 was revised in 1984 and 1989.

The Local plan of town planning (RAINED)

The Local plan of town planning, whose development was prescribed in 2001 by the new municipality, was adopted on June 12th, 2006 by the Conseil of Paris. This new grinding must direct the evolution of the city for the years to come.

RAINED covers the whole of Parisian space except for two protected areas by the State (the Marais and the district of the ministries for the VII {{E}} district) and of the Jardin of Luxembourg that the law Urbanisme and habitat of the July 2nd 2003 placed out of the perimeter of RAINED. It thus includes/understands the ZAC which were not treated in the plan of occupation of the grounds.

zoning . RAINED defines four principal zones, equipped with specific payments:

the general urban area , which covers most of the city, to which applies the rule of the Percentage occupied time of the grounds (COS). The COS from now on is limited to 3 in the general urban area, against 3,25 previously. The plan supports construction in alignment along the street.
urban area of large services urban , which corresponds “the equipment and services necessary to the operation of the City which require specific installations, in order to perennialize them and to support their harmonious development and durable”.
the green urban area : green areas, entertaining and of leisures.
the natural and forest zone : wood of Boulogne and Vincennes.

the gauge . It depends on the width of the street (figures). For a street of width P, the authorized height will be of P + 2 to P + 3 meters on the frontage and of P + 6 to P + 8 meters above the roofs, except in certain streets where the frontage on street will not be able to exceed 18 meters. This gauge relates to the zone E, i.e. a band of ground occupying a 20 meters depth between the street and the medium of the piece. To the rule of the gauge a limitation height of the buildings is added depending not on the width of the street but of the district. Defined in the plan heights, this maximum height is in general of 25 meters in the central districts and of 31 meters in the peripheral districts, with a maximum of 37 meters in certain districts. Goings beyond of gauge can be authorized only by way of derogation.

See too

History of Parisian town planning

External bonds

the manufacture of the streets of Paris to the XIX {{E}} century, Bernard Landau.
Texts and charts of reference of RAINED on the Web site of the Town of Paris.

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