L’île qui change sans changer. La reconfiguration du regard sur l’île de la cité depuis les années cinquante à nos jours

This paper examines the changing representations of the Île de la Cité in Paris from the 1950s to the present, focusing on how the island’s role in urban discourse evolved despite limited physical transformation. Through an analysis of key planning documents and projects—ranging from the Plan d’Urbanisme Directeur to the Schéma Directeur d’Aménagement et d’Urbanisme and later redevelopment studies—the paper identifies two dominant and successive perspectives: the island as a north–south infrastructural crossing (“island-bridge”) and later as an east–west riverfront (“island-bank”). These shifting views reflect broader tensions between modern circulation systems, heritage preservation, and the redefinition of public space in postwar Paris. The study argues that the Île de la Cité has functioned less as a site of architectural transformation than as a recurring symbolic and strategic space, periodically reinterpreted to articulate changing notions of urban modernity and centrality.