The disused, Little Ring Railroad the “Petite Ceinture” occupies a unique place in the Parisian urban landscape, it has a role in the history of the city and is deeply rooted in the collective imagination, both mysterious and protected, but also fragile and much-coveted and contested.
The present diagnostic aims to address these feelings by exploring the length of the railway following different themes: what part does it play in the landscape of the city, what role does it play in the transport infrastructure, what different uses has it been put to in the absence of railway traffic, what place does nature have? These different questions are examined in an attempt to understand the bigger picture of how the Petite Ceinture Railway interacts with its environment.
This diagnostic will be followed by a second phase of the forward-looking study, which will examine transformative possibilities by developing a combined approach: working on large sequential sections of the territory and proposals for local projects.
