They Built A New Paris And It's GLORIOUS

Summary

The video argues that new housing can be both dense and beautiful, presenting Quartier Panorama in Clamart, outside Paris, as an example. Its neo-Haussmannian buildings, central lake, parks, and public amenities are offered as an alternative to the repetitive, minimalist blocks that the narrator says have often made new housing unpopular.

Main ideas

• Beauty can make housing development politically viable. The narrator says mayors have often faced electoral backlash for building housing because residents disliked the appearance of new developments. In his account, traditional, locally inspired architecture helped change that response: residents welcomed the results, and mayors who built this way were reelected.
• The video cites public-preference studies. It describes research in Britain and the United States, as well as a Netherlands survey conducted with Ipsos involving 770 people. The narrator says these studies repeatedly found a strong preference for traditional or classical buildings, including a 92% preference in one case. He argues that planners and architects should take these preferences seriously rather than dismiss them.
• The Clamart project reused an industrial site. The 14-hectare site had been used by the French electricity company EDF. It was closed to the public and polluted by industrial activity. After EDF moved, Clamart’s mayor pursued housing on this underused land rather than densifying the old town.
• Quartier Panorama’s design combines density with public amenities. The plan provides about 2,000 homes around a lake, with stone façades, ornamental details, domes, and metal balconies. It also includes green spaces and walking paths, shops and cafés, two schools, and a kindergarten. Parking is underground, which the narrator says makes the area safer for pedestrians, children, and cyclists.
• The development includes social housing. The narrator says 25% of the homes are social housing. He explains that the project’s more expensive owner-occupied homes help subsidize it, and argues that the appeal of the architecture supports the prices needed to fund both social housing and amenities such as the lake.
• The video presents a broader pattern around Paris. It describes Philippe Pemezec’s work in Le Plessis-Robinson as an earlier example of combining traditional local architecture, parks and ecosystems, moderate density, and mixed uses. According to the narrator, other municipalities copied this approach and found that large housing projects became less politically damaging when residents received them more favorably.
• The project is portrayed as a model, not a perfect solution. The narrator notes that some shops have not survived and that parts of the architecture do not consistently follow classical design rules. Even so, he considers the project preferable to the alternatives and evidence that housing can respect local character while creating attractive, lively places.

Development timeline

• 1946: France nationalizes its gas and electricity sector and establishes EDF.
• Later decades: EDF uses the Clamart site as a campus; the area becomes restricted and industrially polluted.
• 2014: Mayor Jean-Didier Berger is elected and proposes building housing on industrial or underused sites rather than in the old town.
• 2017: The development zone is approved, and architects A26 and ADUA prepare a master plan.
• 2018–2019: Construction begins; the first homes are delivered in 2019.
• 2021: Work begins on a second phase.
• 2024: The narrator says the overall plan is complete.

Other content

The video includes a sponsor promotion for Capacities, a note-taking and personal-knowledge app, and a closing promotion for the creator’s city-building game, Aesthetic City Builder.

Speakers and sources featured

• Ruben, the narrator and host — Presents the argument and describes the development.
• Jean-Didier Berger — Clamart mayor associated with the redevelopment initiative.
• Philippe Pemezec — Mayor associated with the earlier Le Plessis-Robinson example.
• Create Streets — British design practice and think tank cited for public-preference studies.
• Harris Poll — Cited for a U.S. poll on architectural preferences.
• Ipsos — Research firm named in connection with the Netherlands survey of 770 people.
• A26 and ADUA — Architecture firms credited with the Quartier Panorama master plan.
• EDF (Électricité de France) — Former occupant of the redevelopment site.
• Capacities — Video sponsor.