Artialised Environments of Paris, France: Urban Partitioning

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ABSTRACT

In behavioral science, investigators are interested in the social values and the perception of space. One form of expressing these values is represented in the artialisation of space, where individuals selectively depict images they wish to convey to others, excluding other settings and nearby environments. We examined this behavior expression in Paris, France. We collected the images of photographs from a small respondent group who had shared their images with others in the springs of 2015 and 2016. The locations of these images were mapped. Large districts within the city were not represented (unrepresented districts). We took pictures of these districts and compared the images from these districts with the images that respondents had shared. The results illustrate that there are two distinct parts of Paris: one is the Paris that people would like to share (full of landmarks and historic landscapes); the other one is not (containing a matrix of Haussmann post-medieval urban fabric). In other words the two groups of photographs are very different. And in many respects, the unrepresented districts are like “lost space,” as if the districts did not matter and were invisible and unsuitable to the visitor who took photographs. This notion was reinforced in social media depicting maps indicating photographic 'hot spots’ in Paris. We suggest that the “lost space” may require a re-examination concerning the quality and spatial organization of these districts.

KEYWORDS

environmental psychology, landscape aesthetics, urban behavior, land-use planning, urban character, historic districts, tourism

Cite this paper

Xiao Hou, Jon Bryan Burley, Zhi Yue, Pat Crawford, Mark Wilson. (2019) Artialised Environments of Paris, France: Urban Partitioning. International Journal of Cultural Heritage, 4, 10-19