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Justinien Tribillon

The Boulevard Périphérique, anonymous oeuvre of the Parisian technocracy: dissecting a design process at the crossroad of technical reason, social imagination and politics.

Primary supervisor: Prof Claire Colomb
Secondary supervisor: Prof Ben Campkin
Starting date: September 2016
Projected completion date: December 2022
 

The Boulevard Périphérique of Paris, a 35km ring road built around the city between 1956 and 1973, is a politically-loaded infrastructure whose omnipresence in the landscape is inversely proportional to the amount of critical literature dedicated to it. Was its design process the expression of an ‘apolitical’ professional expertise seeking to maximise efficiency? What role did political, social and aesthetical considerations often reframed as ‘technical reason’ play in its construction? To address these questions, based on archival work this thesis analyses the ‘social imagination’ of the technocrats who designed the ring road, focusing on the administrative correspondence of civil servants working at the Paris prefecture as they communicated internally, with elected officials and with citizens. I recontextualise their design choices within their professional and cultural discourses, practices and imaginaries to analyse the Boulevard Périphérique as socially produced.

First, I challenge the assumption that the ring road was built in an empty ‘zone’ by demonstrating how specific actors managed to re-route the Boulevard Périphérique, sometimes leading to evictions in suburban towns. Second, focusing on the socio-political construction  of noise from road traffic as a ‘nuisance’, I argue that the shift from a technocratic governement to a democratically-elected mayor in Paris in 1977 impacted engineers’ evaluation of the technical feasibility of retroffiting the ring road with noiseproof walls. Third, I uncover evidence about the correlation between the social status of the ring road’s neighbours and their capacity to impact on its design, demonstrating the ability of social elites to push for its concealment in their vicinity. Altogether, this thesis dissects the ring road as a ‘design entanglement’ by challenging the notion of ‘technical reason’ as the guiding force of technocrats involved in its construction, throwing light on their biases, the political pressures they faced and hierarchies they were entwined in.

About Justinien

Urbanist, writer, editor and curator, Justinien Tribillon works across different media and disciplines: social science, photography, architecture, history. Justinien is a tutor and PhD candidate at The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, where he explores the Boulevard Périphérique of Paris as sociotechnical artefact. Justinien is co-founder and editor of Migrant Journal, a six-issue publication exploring migration in all its forms. As a curator he has presented “Welcome to Borderland” on the migration of plants at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2021. Together with Offshore Studio (Isabel Seiffert and Christoph Miler) he has also curated “Infrastructure — Visible Upon Breakdown”, an exploration of the concept of infrastructure mixing social sciences and photography due to open at the Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles 2021. This latter exhibition has been cancelled due to Covid-19 but will be reimagined in a book format in 2023. Justinien has recently co-edited Concrete and Ink: Storytelling and the Future of Architecture (2021, nai010). As a writer, Justinien has written for The Guardian, MONU, The Architectural Review among others. Previous roles include Researcher then Associate Director for Europe at Theatrum Mundi (2017-2020).

Publications and other work

Journal articles

  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2022. ‘Ways of Seeing: Landscape-Infrastructure as Critical Design Framework to Analyse the Production of Paris’s Boulevard Périphérique’. Landscape Research 0 (0): 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2022.2048811.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2021. ‘Inventing “Infrastructure”: Tracing the Etymological Blueprint of an Omnipresent Sociotechnical Metaphor’.
  • Tribillon, Justinien, and John Bingham-Hall. 2020. ‘L’essor des « infrastructures culturelles » urbaines : ou quand la « culture » devient un investissement comme un autre’. Journal des Anthropologues (162–163).
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2014. ‘The Localism Act in London: Institutionalising Urban Divisions’. Metropolitics.

Essays

  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2016a. ‘Massey Harris: Mechanical or Trojan Horse’. Pp. 54–61 in Migrant Journal No. 1 ‘Across Country’, edited by J. Tribillon and C. de Almeida Brito. London: Migrant Journal Press.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2016b. ‘Rocking the Austerity Boat: How Millenials Need to Rethink Tomorrow Cities’ Economies’. in Making cities. Visions for an urban future, edited by Eurocities. Bruxelles: Eurocities.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2016c. ‘The Fridge, the City and the Critique of Everyday Life: A Tale of Domestic Urbanism’. MONU, April, 18–21.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2017a. ‘The Panic of 1873’. Pp. 114–19 in Migrant Journal No. 2 ‘Wired Capital’, edited by J. Tribillon and C. de Almeida Brito. London: Migrant Journal Press.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2017b. ‘Wonders and Enigmas of the Migrating Coconut’. Pp. 38–45 in Migrant Journal No. 3 ‘Flowing Grounds’, edited by J. Tribillon, M. Büsse, and D. Randulfe. London: Migrant Journal Press.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2018a. ‘413 Grammes’. Broken Nature, XXII Triennale Milano 2019, November 7.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2018b. ‘Cuando Los Imperios Se Derruban’. Pp. 25–33 in Sobre la Línea: la frontera vertical distribuida, edited by T. Tovar Torres, J. C. Espinosa Cuock, and P. Ceñal Murga. Mexico DF: Proyector.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2018c. ‘Cuando los imperios se derrumban’. Arquine, November 15.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2018d. ‘Grand Ensemble’. Failed States, May, 132–33.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2018e. ‘When the Empires Collapse’. Pp. 25–33 in Sobre la Línea: la frontera vertical distribuida, edited by T. Tovar Torres, J. C. Espinosa Cuock, and P. Ceñal Murga. Mexico DF: Proyector.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2019a. ‘413 Grammes’. in Design. De la nature à l’environnement. Nouvelles Définitions., edited by C. Geel and E. Hale. Paris: T&P Work Unit.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2019b. ‘London Is the Place for Me’. Pp. 58–109 in A City of Comings and Goings, edited by Crimson. Rotterdam: nai010.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2020. ‘Tourist Trap’. The Architectural Review, May, 6–15.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2021. ‘Out of the Woodwork’. The Architectural Review, October 2021.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2022. ‘Lost in Transit’. The Architectural Review, May 2022.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2022. ‘Student Residence Paris-Saclay, France. Bruther’. The Architectural Review, June 2022.

Journalism

  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2015a. ‘Dirty Boulevard: Why Paris’s Ring Road Is a Major Block on the City’s Grand Plans’. The Guardian, June 26.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2015b. ‘Why Is a Paris Suburb Scrapping an Urban Farm to Build a Car Park?’ The Guardian, September 11.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2016a. ‘How Nature Turned a Failed Communist Plan into Bucharest’s Unique Urban Park’. The Guardian, June 14.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2016b. ‘Paris’s River Revolution: The Supermarket That Delivers Groceries via the Seine’. The Guardian, March 1.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2017a. ‘New Life in the Kingdom of Death: The Plan to Redevelop Subterranean Paris’. The Guardian, February 6.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2017b. ‘Plongée dans les sous-sols endormis de Paris’. Courrier international, March 3.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2017c. ‘העתיד של עיר האורות נמצא מתחת לאדמה’. Haaretz, February 7.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2018. ‘A Walking Cure for Sarcellitis: Can Trails Unite Paris’s City and Suburbs?’ The Guardian, January 25.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2019. ‘A Mirage of Luxury Built on Sand’. Magnum Photos. Retrieved 1 March 2019 (https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/environment/sim-chi-yin-a-mirage-of-luxury-built-on-sand/).
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2020. ‘The Value of Culture in Austerity Britain’. Theatrum Mundi.
  • Tribillon, Justinien, Isabel Seiffert, and Christoph Miler. 2018. ‘Subatomic Diplomacy’. Pp. 22–39 in Migrant Journal No. 5 ‘Micro Odysseys’, edited by J. Tribillon, M. Büsse, and D. Randulfe. London: Migrant Journal Press.

Edited volumes

  • Tribillon, Justinien, and Catarina de Almeida Brito, eds. 2016. Across Country. Vol. 1. London: Migrant Journal Press.
  • Tribillon, Justinien, and Catarina de Almeida Brito, eds. 2017. Wired Capital. Vol. 2. London: Migrant Journal Press.
  • Tribillon, Justinien, Michaela Büsse, and Dámaso Randulfe, eds. 2017. Flowing Grounds. Vol. 3. London: Migrant Journal Press.
  • Tribillon, Justinien, ed. 2018. Dark Matters. Vol. 4. London: Migrant Journal Press.
  • Tribillon, Justinien, Michaela Büsse, and Dámaso Randulfe, eds. 2018. Micro Odysseys. Vol. 5. London: Migrant Journal Press.
  • Tribillon, Justinien, Michaela Büsse, and Dámaso Randulfe, eds. 2019. Foreign Agents. Vol. 6. London: Migrant Journal Press.
  • Michalowska, Marta, and Justinien Tribillon, eds. 2021. Concrete & Ink: Storytelling and the Future of Architecture. Rotterdam: nai010.

Conference papers

  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2017. ‘Producing the Banlieue: Rethinking Infrastructural Landscape and Paris’s Metropolitan Identity via the Périphérique’. in Séminaire de la Chaire Villes Globales. Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2018a.‘Paris’s Concrete Belt: Rampart or Connector?’, June 21, Future of London Annual Conference.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2018b. ‘Producing the Parisian Banlieue’. Royal College of Arts.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2019a.‘Producing the Paris Banlieue’, March 27, Columbia University.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2019b. ‘The Infrastructural Landscape of Paris: Dissecting the Metaphors to Develop New Methodologies’. in (Infra)structuring ideology: discourse and visuality - G1. Manchester Urban Institute, Manchester University.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2019c. ‘The Words of “Infrastructure”: The Journey of a Concept That Came to Define Modernity’. University College London.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2020a. ‘Imagining, Designing and Building Paris’s Boulevard Périphérique: Understanding the Périph’s Role in the “Production of the Banlieue” and Paris’s Infrastructural Landscape (1943-1973; 2007-Today)’. University College London.
  • Tribillon, Justinien. 2020b. ‘Larger than Life: Landscape-Infrastructure as Critical Design Framework for Post-War Paris’. Urban Institute, University of Sheffield.

Teaching

Academic Year 2016-2017

  • PGTA, BENVGPD5 City Planning (UCL, BSP)
  • PGTA, BENVGPL6 Comparative Planning Systems and Cultures (UCL, BSP)
  • PGTA, BENVGTC4 Urban Design: Guidance, Incentive and Control (UCL, BSP)
  • PGTA, ENVS1016 Contemporary Cities (UCL, BSP)

Academic Year 2017-2018

  • PGTA, BENVGPD5 City Planning (UCL, BSP)
  • PGTA, BENVGPL6 Comparative Planning Systems and Cultures (UCL, BSP)
  • PGTA, BENVGTC4 Urban Design: Guidance, Incentive and Control (UCL, BSP)
  • PGTA, ENVS1016 Contemporary Cities (UCL, BSP)
  • PGTA, ENVS2008 Cities and Social Change (UCL, BSP)

Academic Year 2018-2019

  • PGTA, BPLN0038 Comparative Planning Systems and Cultures (UCL, BSP)
  • PGTA, BPLN0013 Planning Practices in Europe
  • PGTA, BPLN0071 Contemporary Cities (UCL, BSP)
  • Studio Tutor, M ARCH: Architecture (Central Saint Martins, UAL)

Academic Year 2019-2020

  • PGTA, BPLN0038 Comparative Planning Systems and Cultures (UCL, BSP)
  • PGTA, BPLN0071 Contemporary Cities (UCL, BSP)

Academic Year 2020-2021

  • PGTA, BPLN0038 Comparative Planning Systems and Cultures (UCL, BSP)
  • PGTA, BPLN0071 Contemporary Cities (UCL, BSP)

Academic year 2021-22

  • PGTA, BPLN0038 Comparative Planning Systems and Cultures (UCL, BSP)
  • PGTA, BPLN0071 Contemporary Cities (UCL, BSP)