THE CITY OF Tomorrow Alain de Botton describes how in 1925 French architect Le Corbusier proposed a drastic plan to rebuild the historic centre of Paris. I once spent a summer in a small hotel in the second 5 arrondissement of Paris, a stone's throw away from the chilly seriousness of the old National Library, where I repaired every morning in a vain attempt to research a book I hoped to write. It was a lively part of town, and I would often sit in a café adjacent to my hotel named, as if out of a tourist guide, 10 Chez Antaine. P Everyone, it seemed, dropped by Chez Antoine at some point in the day. Elegant women would have coffee and a cigarette at the counter in the morning. Policemen lunched there. students whiled away the afternoons on the covered terrace, 15 and by evening there'd be scholars, politicians, divorcees and tourists, flirting, arguing, having dinner, smoking and playing pinball. As a result, although I was alone in Paris, and went for days hardly speaking to anyone, I felt none of the alienation with which I was familiar in other cities. That 20 summer I imagined no greater happiness than to be able to live in Paris for ever, pursuing a routine of going to the library. ambling the streets and watching the world from a corner table at Chez Antoine. I was therefore surprised to find out, some years later, that 25 the very area in which I had stayed had fallen within a zone which one of the most intelligent and influential architects of the twentieth century had wanted systematically to dynamite and replace with a great park punctuated at intervals with eighteen 60-storey cruciform towers stretching up to the 30 lower slopes of Montmartre. Le Corbusier had drawn up his Parisian scheme at a moment of unequalled urban crisis. Across the developing world, cities were exploding in size. In 1800 the French capital was home to 647,000 people. By 1910 three million were squeezed within 35 its inadequate confines. In apartment buildings, several families typically shared a single room. In 1900, in the poorer districts of Paris, one toilet generally served 70 residents. A cold-water tap was a luxury. Factories and workshops were sited in the middle of residential areas, emitting smoke and deadly effluents. 40 Children played in courtyards covered with raw sewage. Cholera and tuberculosis were a constant threat. Streets were choked by traffic day and night. There was not much that was picturesque about the early twentieth-century city. EPAU ENGLISH ( 1 year FB) Le Corbusier was horrified by such conditions. All cities have 45 fallen into a state of anarchy," he remarked. The world is sick. Given the scale of the crisis, drastic measures were in order, and the architect was in no mood to feel sentimental about their side effects. The existing centres must come down,' he said. To save itself every great city must rebuild 50 its centre. In order to alleviate overcrowding, the ancient low-rise buildings would have to be replaced by a new kind of structure only recently made possible by advances in reinforced concrete technology: the skyscraper. 2,700 people will use one front door, marvelled Le Corbusier. 55 By building upwards, two problems would be resolved at a stroke: overcrowding and urban sprawl. With room enough for everyone in towers, there would be no need to spread outwards and devour the countryside in the process. There would be ample green space as well, as up to 50 per cent of 60 urban land would be devoted to parks. The new city would itself be a vast park, with large towers dotted among the trees. On the roofs of the apartment blocks, there would be games of tennis, and sunbathing on the shores of artificial beaches. Simultaneously. Le Corbusier planned to abolish the city 65 street. He resented the fact that the legitimate demands of both cars and people were constantly and needlessly compromised, and he therefore recommended that the two be separated. In the new city, people would have footpaths all to themselves, winding through woods and forests (no 70 pedestrian will ever meet an automobile, ever!), while cars would enjoy massive and dedicated motorways, with smooth, curving interchanges, thus guaranteeing that no driver would ever have to slow down for the sake of a pedestrian. The division of cars and people was but one element 75 in Le Corbusier's plan for a reorganization of life in the new city. All functions would now be untangled. There would no longer be factories, for example, 80 in the middle of residential areas. The new city would be an arena of green space, clean air, ample accommodation 85 and flowers.
Read the precedent text and answer the following: 1- What image comes to your mind when you think of Paris? ​