La Seine: The Changing Territory

La Seine is the river of Paris the city. The city has been more and more dynamic with lot of municipal projects and tremendous changes of it. Going through the center of such a metropolis, la Seine of Paris has been the construction site and pioneer of the renewal of the city that reflect the urban context and the economic changes. The river is the materialized carrier of all the changes. The industrial sites along the river are so potential that they infuse new vigor into Paris. The development over the half century after World War II makes Paris especially the shore of la Seine into a spectacular longitudinal section of the city and the urban structure into different forms of city development. From small scale of streets to regional scale of grand Paris, La Seine, the vivid space carrier, has become the development artery of the city.The demand for approach to nature and open space triggers people wishes of return to river shore. The riverside city development is one important element of city renewal of industrial site along the river. New definition and function are applied to the urban space of the shore of la Seine at the same time. The function of urban space is redefined into the connection between the city and the river. The sustainable and continuous urban design is based on this point as well.In Paris, the center of urban agglomeration, is la Seine the main axis of regional development? River was a borderline instead of a ligament as usual. The role of la Seine has changed lately. The projects distributed along the river shore are no longer urban segments. The river has connected them into a whole. The value axis of Paris has been through continuous changes from the resources of the old city to a new metropolis to be built here.The article analyzes how a metropolis rebuilds its urban image though developing river shore space, based on the case study of the municipal projects along la Seine and the experience of European riverside development. At the time of river return to urban space, the research of la seine shore space is much of reference to the city renewal and development of Shanghai.