Paris, mirroring metropolises : Ile-de-France as a new Ecoregion

Des études pluridisciplinaires entre sciences, architecture et urbanisme, donnant à voir les aménagements contemporains de l'agglomération de Paris ainsi que de sa périphérie. Les auteurs évoquent les plans d'urbanisme, l'écologie ou encore l'évolution historique de la ville. ©Electre 2025

When, in 2007, the Institut d'études avancées of Paris (IEA-Paris) entrusted us with the coordination of the programme «Paris Métropoles en miroir. L'Ile-de-France comme région métropolitaine», the Ile-de- France Regional Council had just completed its work with local elected officials and associations to revise the region's Master Plan (SDRIF). Launched in 2001, the City of Paris had created the «Paris métropole» council and had established regular exchanges with local authorities in Île-de-France. Several ministerial research programmes, such as the Platform for Observation of Urban Projects and Strategies (POPSU) and the Architecture of the Large Scale (AGE), had aimed to question the strategies, plans and projects of metropolitan territories by including an approach related to architecture. The metropolitan dimension was more than ever at the heart of the debates when, in September 2007, the French State launched the idea of an international consultation on the «Grand Pari(s) de l'agglomération Parisienne», which raised new questions on the international scene about the governance and the development project of the capital region.

Built over two years on the basis of several thematic and project workshops, seminars and round tables, the «Paris Metropoles en miroir» programme has created a dynamic of exchange between researchers and urban actors, based on a confrontation between different types of disciplinary approaches and project cultures.

Compared with the French edition of 2012, this book takes up some of the issues that were discussed at our workshops and seminars over two years, and is enriched with new articles and numerous maps and plans. The cartographic collection focused on the graphic representation of the Parisian metropolis aimed at allowing a parallel and simultaneous vision of the Parisian reality through a multi-scalar and multi-temporal point of view. Among the many documents that illustrate the historical evolution of Paris in relation to its immediate surroundings and, more broadly, to the regional territory, we have chosen maps that show the historical and geographical correlation between dense built-up areas, vegetation patterns and mobility networks.