A documentary film that explores a paradigm shift from destruction to repair, through the story of seven low-income towers designed by architect Raymond Lopez and located along the Paris ring road.
PROJECT PRESENTATION
De porte à porte is a documentary film that explores the history of seven HLM towers located along the Paris ring road, from Porte Pouchet to Porte de Poissonniers. Architect Raymond Lopez designed these towers in the 1960s as part of a joint urban initiative, secteur 8, using the same architectural prototype for all seven buildings. However, juxtaposed with these initial similarities is a striking disparity in the fate Lopez's towers have met in the 60 years since their construction. Some have been demolished, others transformed and rehabilitated. The Tour Poissonniers, initially threatened with demolition, is currently being renovated.
This disparity in the fates of the seven towers reveals the story of a remarkable paradigm shift in the urban renewal sector, one that has replaced the paradigm of demolition of social housing with that of transformation. Our film explores this shift, examining how architecture, urban planning and local politics worked together to tackle a problem with such a significant social and ecological impact.
Door to Door brings this story to life through the voices of the various characters at the heart of Sector 8, while highlighting the unique aesthetics of the towers, their demolition, and their transformation. Our film is a visual testimony to a step in the right direction. Combining Rocio Calzado's doctoral research and Jasper Meurer's experience in visual documentation, it aims to critically assess this stage of concretization and clarify the various elements of this process, in order to make it possible to repeat a "paradigmatic shift in the way the city was destined to evolve.
Door to Door brings this story to life through the voices of the various characters at the heart of Sector 8, while highlighting the unique aesthetics of the towers, their demolition, and their transformation. Our film is a visual testimony to a step in the right direction. Combining Rocio Calzado's doctoral research and Jasper Meurer's experience in visual documentation, it aims to critically assess this stage of concretization and clarify the various elements of this process, in order to make it possible to repeat a "paradigmatic shift in the way the city was destined to evolve.
PROJECT OWNERS
Rocio Calzado, Architect. Doctoral student at École des Ponts ParisTech. Urban planner and researcher at AUC.
Jasper Meurer, Documentary filmmaker and researcher
Docar (@docar.films) is a documentary film collective that tells urban stories. It was founded in 2023 by Rocio Calzado and Jasper Meurer, as a platform for telling political scenes by investigating their intersections with the world of architecture. After meeting at the Sciences Po research school, Jasper Meurer embarked on a career in visual research and documentary filmmaking, while Rocio Calzado is completing her doctorate in urban planning at the École des Ponts and collaborating with AUC Paris on a social housing transformation project. Together, they have decided to combine their multidisciplinary backgrounds to take a unique look at urban planning, architecture and politics. "De porte à porte" will be their first film resulting from this collaboration.
