Nature and Engineering: The Park of the Buttes-Chaumont

Nature and Engineering: The Park of the Buttes-Chaumont

Lecturer: Antoine Picon – Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology, Harvard Graduate School of Design

21 November 2022, 16:00—18:00 | via Zoom
Zoom link: external pageethz.zoom.us/j/61354054736call_made

Organized by Chair of Being Alive, Prof. Teresa Galí-Izard – Institute of Landscape and Urban Studies

Paradoxically, the park of the Buttes-Chaumont is perceived as one of the most natural of Paris, while being a technological achievement designed by Second Empire engineers. The relation between nature and technology, nature and engineering represent a main theme of one of the most emblematic projects of the new Paris of Napoléon III and Haussmann. Supported by major infrastructure work, staged with the help of technology, nature serves the ambition to pacify the city through an urban experience based on the association of the pleasure generated by strolling and a series of moral impressions.

Image credits: Charles Marville, Vue des Buttes-Chaumont en travaux, Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris.