They are the city’s heritage and are part of the Paris skyline along with the Torre Eiffel and Sacré Coeur. Over the years they have become one of the most photographed elements, but for Parisians, however, they have ceased to be a beautiful element and have become a nightmare.
Los gray zinc roofs, that occupy four fifths of the sky of Paris, They can reach 70ºC in full heat wave, affecting the neighbors who live on the top floors of these buildings. Spaces normally occupied by students or people with low resources, since they are tiny apartments that were once the homes of service people, known as ‘chambres de bonnes’.
To demonstrate what levels of heat these plates can reach, some French people publish videos on the internet cooking an egg on them. In a matter of minutes, the egg is ready to eat. A comical situation, if not because with the arrival of this historic heat wave that hits the entire country, a great debate has been generated in the French capital. Should Paris rethink its architecture to cope with heat waves?
The answer is yes, but in practice it is not that easy. There is a wide patrimonial regulation which covers a large part of the urban elements of the city, and that any change, no matter how minor, has to be evaluated by the office of the Ministry of Culture called Construction Architects of France, whose decisions are binding, including those related to adaptations to climate change.
Dan Lert, the deputy mayor, recently stated that this office blocked a third of the projects promoted to protect buildings from heat waves in Paris, due to the fact that they violate heritage. These historic roofs are relatively new to the city. Before the 1850s, The image of the Paris skyline was very different; The buildings had gabled roofs covered with slate or clay tiles. Zinc appeared after the macro urban project promoted by Georges-Eugène Haussmann that remodeled the entire city and established the current Haussmann style in its buildings.
Zinc is a relatively cheap, light and malleable material, capable of folding and perfect for providing space on top of buildings to create small rooms. However, with the acceleration of climate change and rising temperatures, This material has become quite a challenge to maintain the temperature of the city.
“All of these apartments, especially those on the upper floors, will be uninhabitable in the coming years,” said Dan Lert, deputy mayor in charge of the city’s ecological transition and its climate change plan, during an interview.
Air conditioning, the great discord
Not only its roofs generate, talking about air conditioning in Paris is opening an important Pandora’s box. Few public spaces have air conditioning and even fewer apartments. Hospitals, residences, police stations, schools… No trace of air conditioning systems. The debate over its installation generates great discord among the political class, where even the polarization of opinions is the ideological position of the parties. For the detractorsmostly left-wing parties, installing the devices on the facades of buildings is not only considered a criminal act, but also a polluting gesture. Several studies confirm that these machines not only generate noise pollution, but also a mass of hot air that increases high temperatures.
Los supporters of its installation, more right-wing, they consider that in the face of these increasingly frequent heat waves and in which thermometers exceed 40 degrees in some areas of Paris it is imperative to install these systemswhile the administration gradually adapts the city.
Citizens, for their part, are more critical of these adaptations. “Thousands of people died in the 2003 heat wave. It was 23 years ago, and since then, we continue without air conditioning in public transport, schools and hospitals. I really don’t know who should be in charge, but they are not doing their job,” explains Geneviève, a resident of the 17th arrondissement, who is isolating herself these days in an air-conditioned cafeteria in the neighborhood to be able to withstand the high temperatures.
Install air conditioning systems in a city with a historical heritage like Paris, it is not so easy, It would mean modifying heritage regulations and carrying out important renovations to the buildings. In public transport, it is also a great challenge. Only 6 of the capital’s 16 metro lines have air conditioning. The authorities insist that the new carriages have already been ordered, but it will take at least until 2033 to complete the capital’s entire railway network.
More green areas, less asphalt
The greening of Paris along with reducing traffic, has been one of the main battles of the last mayor, Anne Hidalgo, who has fought to transform the city center into greener spaces, building nearly 300 streets free of cars and 1,000 kilometers of cycle paths. In addition to setting the goal plant 170,000 trees between 2020 and 2026.
During this time, the associations have shown that in areas where asphalt and cars have been replaced by trees and parks, the temperature has decreased by a couple of degrees. For this reason, they insist that the future of Paris must be without cars and with more green areas in order to reduce the well-known “urban heat island”, but also to improve the quality of life of its citizens.
However, this transformation will not be a matter of a few years; urban planners agree that The city was conceived to respond to the challenges of the 19th century, not the heat waves of the 21st.
Between the demands of conservation and the climate urgency, Paris faces a delicate balance: protect one of the most recognizable urban heritages in the world and adapt the city so that it does not become a thermal trap.
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