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The banlieues (suburbs) of Paris are key case study for the social and political evolution of post-war France. Drawing on the overarching narrative of the trente glorieuses, existing scholarship has viewed the construction of grands ensembles d’habitation (mass housing estates) as part of a harmonious modernisation project through which France moved away from governing its colonies and towards the governance of everyday life. Yet, this view of banlieue housing as an expression of generic, totalising state power overlooks the conflicts and uncertainties that underpinned the modernisation process. This thesis analyses the construction and governance of two grands ensembles: the 4000 logements in La Courneuve and Les Courtillières in Pantin during the period 1955-1973. By analysing how state actors constructed and debated notions of urban modernity, this thesis will use the grands ensembles to explore France’s post-war modernisation as an uneven, localised and limited process. In discussing the limits to state power in these areas, this thesis develops scholarship on the banlieues and post-war France in three key ways. Firstly, this thesis will interrogate the relationship between the grand ensemble and notions of modernity, and will challenge the notion of mass housing as part of a forward-thinking modernisation process. Close analysis of sociological studies of mass housing and planning discourse will be used to demonstrate that the key objective was not to modernise, but to create a benign governable space that glossed over the more complex reality. By looking at localised discourses of municipal council and housing associations, this thesis will also question the harmonious nature of modernisation in discussing the ongoing debates between different state actors regarding the role of mass housing and of the banlieues more generally. Secondly, this thesis will develop academic understandings of the relationship between the citizen and the state. While the banlieues have been situated within the orbit of a totalising, technocratic Gaullist national state and the local communist-governed municipality, this thesis will question whether the state ‘existed’ in the banlieues. Records of municipal campaigning and existing resident testimonies will be used to challenge the historical narrative of the ceinture rouge by demonstrating that at a local level, the state maintained only loose control in the governance of everyday life and focused on a narrow range of issues. Developing this notion of a flexible, arterial state, this thesis will also analyse estate plans closely in order to highlight that interior space rather than enacting new forms of social conditioning was uneven in nature and made considerable concessions to existing modes of living. Thirdly, this thesis will develop existing notions of power and authority by arguing that while French post-war modernisation has generally been viewed as a technocratic process, it relied on direct coercion to compensate for its inherent limitations. While scholars have viewed the grands ensembles as a short-lived triumph of ‘the liberal art of government’, this thesis will argue that technocratic governance of the banlieues was ‘propped up’ by a dramatic expansion of policing and surveillance of these areas. This thesis will analyse police records of racial and geographical profiling and the suppression of protest in order to argue that policing produced a more systematic form of banlieue governance compared to uneven, limited technocratic power. Overall this thesis will use the grand ensemble to present an alternative view of the trente glorieuses in which the French state projecting authority into areas where the state lacked knowledge or influence, and sought to protect itself from modernity rather than to enact it.

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The American Dream has its origins in the tenets of this country: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal: among these [equalities] are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."1 The notion that happiness must be pursued, is integral to American cultural thought and ultimately the collective American Dream. Realization of this dream and its physical manifestation, however, are the direct result of an expanding industrial economy beginning in the 1940s. A myriad factors influenced the possibility of expansion into new suburbs within commuting distance of growing cities. The creation of the interstate and the boom of the auto industry made easy transportation into and out of the city a reality. Heightened manufacturing spurred by World War II, the growth of the stock market, and wage growth made fleeing the dense urban center an economic possibility, and for many a desirable pursuit. Cities grew at alarming rates and became overcrowded as a result of the industrial job market Yet, industrial waste made city life untenable; pollution permeated the air and disease filled the overcrowded streets. The desire to leave grew quickly, but it was not yet possible for many working class families until the 1944 G.I. bill.2 The bill increased the possibility of suburban home ownership through subsidized housing mortgages and loans, affording returning veterans the opportunity to participate in attaining the dream.3 To keep up with demand, construction techniques drew on the mass production methods of the auto industry and built "model" homes that were easily constructible with speed and an economy of means.4 Easy access to a autonomous home and yard outside of the city shifted demographics, the American landscape, and cemented the suburban model as the predominant mode of the American home for an idealized nuclear family. / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

We have too much parking. The automobile-oriented utopia promised by optimistic modern architects like Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright did not come to pass. Personal motor vehicles have indeed become ubiquitous, but the effect in urban environments, at least has been more tyranny than democracy. Cars have taken over the city. Huge areas of urban land are dedicated almost exclusively to cars, and narrow-minded engineer-driven planning continues to widen streets, raise speed limits, and increase parking space, to the detriment of alternate (and by most metrics superior) methods of transportation, or any other potential use of urban space. Additionally, with technological advances allowing car-sharing and the projected explosion of self-driving cars, parking garages are likely soon to become obsolete. We don't have enough housing. As more people move to cities, vulnerable established communities are displaced, property taxes soar, and city footprints balloon. Increased residential density, through both n construction and infill, can assuage these problems while decreasing the necessity of automobile travel. I will begin my research by analyzing the typology of the American parking garage and its relationship to the urban fabric. This analysis will yield a taxonomy of the formal and material components of parking structures. Many components will be challenges to human habitation; a few will be benefits; all will present opportunities for a symbolically and actively revolutionary form of urban housing. From this taxonomy, I will develop a catalog of strategies for responding to these challenges at least to address them and ideally to reframe them as assets. I will test these strategies by applying them to a local parking garage, adapting it as a multifamily housing complex and alternate transportation hub. These strategies could later be enacted city- and nation-wide to transform a mainstay of stubborn car culture into an urban asset. / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

I have always been fascinated by vertical living, especially in the dense Urban context. I wonder how families become neighbors and create a sense of neighborhood when under a single roof in a multifamily/ multi storied housing complex. Whereas the building also serves the various amenities to its dwellers. Vertical living plays a very significant role and is typically necessary for housing the dense population in the urban areas. However, with limited resources, the living standards in those situations are often compromised. While focusing on the built environment, the intangible essence of 'home' has been lost. The notion of home is missing when living vertically. The home is not only a place of shelter that protects us from the hostility of nature, provides security, safety and privacy but also is associated with one's memories, celebrations and interactions throughout our lives. These are the aspirations and invaluable assets in our life. The notion of home is seldom fulfilled without the sense of neighborhood. In a healthy neighborhood, streets are walkable, neighbors know each other, with diversity and mixed use, public open spaces accessible to all. My research focuses on those aspects of human aspirations regarding the built environment and strives to bring back those experiences of home and neighborhood to vertical living. / Master of Architecture / Vertical living plays a very significant role and is typically necessary for housing the dense population in the urban areas. But it often fails to respond to its context, place, culture and emotional aspects of its dwellers. Moreover, with limited resources, the living standards in those situations are also compromised. While focusing on the built environment, the intangible essence of 'home' has been lost. The home is not only a place of shelter that protects us from the hostility of nature, provides security, safety and privacy but also is associated with one's memories, celebrations and interactions throughout our lives. These are the aspirations and invaluable assets in our life. This notion of home is missing when living vertically. The notion of home and the sense of neighborhood are closely related to each other. The traits of a healthy neighborhood are- walkable streets, friendly neighbors, density, diversity and mixed land use, accessible public open spaces. 'Rethinking vertical living' focuses on those aspects of human aspirations regarding the built environment. The research strives to bring back the emotional aspects of human life regarding home and neighborhood, and to improve the living standard in vertical living.

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This thesis proposes an urban hybrid within the historical district of downtown San Francisco. The design develops a new typ of urban housing introducing the architectural concept of the house to the highrise. / Master of Architecture

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Le terme de bidonville est réapparu ces dernières années en France dans les discours politiques et médiatiques. Bien qu’utilisé à l'origine pour désigner les lieux d'habitations des populations identifiées comme Roms, ce mot est mobilisé aujourd'hui pour évoquer aussi bien un phénomène lié à la très grande pauvreté que des processus de relégation et d'exclusion. Pourtant, de nombreux travaux en sociologie et en anthropologie ont montré la capacité intégratrice du bidonville, en particulier lorsqu'il facilite la mise en relation des migrants avec leur environnement social. L'objet est donc complexe et une tension interne permanente structure la fonction sociale qu'il joue : il est à la fois piège et à la fois sas.L'évolution du contexte social, économique et politique des dernières décennies demande donc de réinterroger les connaissances acquises durant la période des années 1960-1970, à un moment où la France avait compté jusqu'à 70 000 habitants au sein des bidonvilles. Alors que les raisons expliquant la présence et le maintien des bidonvilles sur le territoire ont évolué, les formes d'intégration qui y sont associées se sont elles aussi transformées. En effet, le modèle « français d'intégration », très homogène et mécanique, s'appuyait jusqu'à récemment sur l'emploi et une assimilation normative ; toutefois, les nouvelles formes de pauvreté et l'affaiblissement des institutions régulatrices telles que la famille, l'école ou l'État ont conduit à des difficultés croissantes pour accueillir les nouveaux arrivants. C'est alors de plus en plus l'État-providence qui a pris en charge ces mécanismes, mais les défaillances sont multiples et elles expliquent en partie la relégation et la marginalisation de certains individus présents sur le territoire français.Dès lors, l'objectif de ce travail est de saisir si les bidonvilles jouent toujours un rôle intégrateur, et si cela est le cas, quelles en sont les différentes modalités. Pour répondre à cette question, la thèse s'appuie sur une ethnographie de deux années menée dans le nord-est de la France auprès d'une douzaine de familles vivant dans un bidonville. À partir de l'analyse des problématiques du quotidien, nous décrirons de quelle manière se mène leur accès à la société française et en quoi leurs conditions de vie peuvent constituer des freins ou des facilitateurs dans ce parcours. Il s'agira en outre de comprendre de la façon dont les habitants stabilisent et donnent une cohérence à leurs trajectoires, en particulier face à un monde urbain mouvant, changeant et fragilisant les modalités de construction du sentiment d'appartenance citoyen / The term slum has reappeared in recent years in France in political and media discourse. Although originally used to designate the places of residence of populations identified as Roma, this word is now used to refer both to a phenomenon linked to very high poverty and to processes of relegation and exclusion. However, many studies in sociology and anthropology have shown the slum's integrative capacity, particularly when it facilitates the connection of migrants with their social environment. The object is therefore complex and a permanent internal tension structures the social function it plays: it is both a trap and an airlock.The changes in the social, economic and political context of recent decades therefore require a reinterpretation of the knowledge acquired during the period 1960-1970, at a time when France had counted up to 70.000 inhabitants in the slums. While the reasons for the presence and maintenance of slums in the territory have changed, the forms of integration associated with them have also changed. Indeed, the "French integration" model, which is very homogeneous and mechanical, was until recently based on employment and normative assimilation; however, new forms of poverty and the weakening of regulatory institutions such as the family, school or the State have led to increasing difficulties in welcoming new arrivals. It was then increasingly the welfare state that took charge of these mechanisms, but there are many failures and they partly explain the relegation and marginalization of some individuals present on French territory.The objective of this work is therefore to understand whether slums still play an integrating role, and if so, what the different modalities are. To answer this question, the thesis is based on a two-year ethnography conducted in northeastern France with a dozen families living in a slum. Based on an analysis of everyday issues, we will describe how their access to French society is managed and how their living conditions can act as obstacles or facilitators in this process. It will also be a question of understanding how the inhabitants stabilize and give coherence to their trajectories, particularly in the face of a changing urban world that is changing and weakening the ways in which the sense of belonging of citizens is constructed