Category: Concrete slab urbanism

Urban planning on slabs is a form of urban planning that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s and which consisted of separating pedestrian paths from motorized traffic on several layers.

The different levels of urbanism on slabs

– Underground levels hosting subway, public transport and other services.
– Level 0 corresponding to the natural ground which is connected to the streets and therefore accessible to cars, buses, cabs, delivery vehicles, etc.
– A raised level consisting of a concrete slab for pedestrian use. It constitutes the first floor of all buildings and can also accommodate all the usual urban amenities and furniture.

France is one of the countries in the world where this type of urban planning has been implemented the most, mainly in the largest cities such as Paris and its suburbs, Lyon, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Grenoble, or Toulouse.

Originally presented as an ideal urbanism, the slab took its meaning at the scale of a district and prefigured a utopian world where the pedestrian would be king and away from the nuisances of the city.

But as time went by, the districts on slabs have for the most part not aged well. They turned out to be quite often dysfunctional because of the difficulties of access and the number of additional spaces to manage.
Poorly maintained by the city councils and a little too adapted to all kinds of traffic, they have also become very desertified.
In the end, these neighborhoods have become less and less attractive and isolated from the rest of the city.

Find my reports in connection with the urbanism on slabs in France: