Located in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, the Olympiades district is recognizable by its slab and its towers built in the 70s. We find here testimonies of architects, inhabitants, young people and also refugees from Southeast Asia in the late 1970s.
Two housewives who live in the larger Olympiad complex bear witness to daily life. They reveal the negative aspects of living together as imposing as this new city.
Seeing the area differently is the goal of a renovation project at the Olympiads in the 13th arrondissement. 10% of the population of the borough lives there, but the neighborhood has aged poorly. The infrastructure no longer meets the needs of the residents. The elected officials, Serge BLISKO, mayor of the 13th, and Jacques LARRUE, president of the supervisory board, of the district support this project and hope to revitalize the city in the city.
The towers in the capital are no longer fashionable. The Greens' political party is calling for consultation with the Parisians on a project to build Tours in the North East of Paris. In some of these towers, the opinion is more contrasted, some like to take the height, when others welcome a certain solidarity between inhabitants. Testimonies of two residents of the London tower in the Olympiad district in the 13th arrondissement.
On images of the architectural complex of the Olympiad district, the inhabitants, young and old, express themselves on their daily life in this environment. The architect Michel Holley responds to the criticisms of concrete: "the surfaces of green space, there is none, it is not urban. The city is not meant to be a green space".
The Olympiad slab is a city in the city with its codes. The inhabitants gradually took over the spaces. The young people find themselves in the stadium, facing an environment they do not like, they form a group anyway.
Michel Holley, the architect of the Olympiad district in Paris in the 13th arrondissement, discusses the execution of this exceptional ensemble in the seventies.
Window on the Asian quarter in Paris. Streets of the 13th arrondissement make us travel in several Asian countries. The Olympiad district welcomed many refugees from South East Asia in the 1970s. Testimonies of Cambodians who grew up and remained in this particular architectural complex, and of the architect, at the time of construction.