Le Havre, the City Rebuilt by Auguste Perret

• Housing (high rise tower)
• Weakness of the planning and management systems in place

N/A

Between 2019 and 2023, a high-rise building was erected within the World Heritage property, without prior notification to the World Heritage Committee, as required by Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines. An Advisory mission took place on 31 May and 1 June 2023 and provided a set of recommendations which were endorsed by the World Heritage Committee in its Decision 45 COM 7B.184. On 26 January 2024, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report, which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1181/documents/ and presents progress in the implementation of the above-mentioned Decision as follows:

• The Heritage Code of 2016 defines the responsibilities of the different levels of public administration in the preservation of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of World Heritage properties;
• The Local Urban Plan (PLU) is the main planning instrument at the municipal level, whilst the Remarkable Heritage Sites (SPR) are regulated by the rules for Architecture and Heritage Enhancement Areas (AVAP). Ensuring coherence between the AVAP and the provisions of the PLU is mandatory;
• To strengthen the protection system, the State Party intends to modify the regulation of the SPR to provide a solid framework for existing exceptions by removing them in the perimeter of the World Heritage property and specifying them in the buffer zone. These modifications will be integrated into the updated PLU to ensure consistency. Deliberation for approval of these modifications is expected by spring 2025. The draft intercommunal PLU (PLUi) will integrate the above-mentioned changes and is scheduled for approval by the end of 2025;
• Experiments with façade lighting will be presented to the Reactive Monitoring mission. No specific lighting display is envisaged for the Tour Alta and the only lights planned are for residential and functional purposes. To avoid the formation of a halo on the underside of the balconies, it has been requested that luminaires be positioned outside, away from the façade. The city of Le Havre, in consultation with the Architects of the Buildings of France (ABF) and the Regional Cultural Affairs Department (DRAC) intends to develop an urban study to re-consider the public spaces around the Tour, based on the recommendations of the Advisory mission. The outcomes of the study will be incorporated into the Management and Programming Guidelines of the PLU and, eventually, into the integrated PLUi;
• Activities to improve the energy performance of existing buildings have been in place since the 1980s and will continue. The Urban Community of Le Havre Seine Metropole provides financial support to co-owners of listed buildings for their energy efficiency projects. With a view to preserving biodiversity, the SPR regulation encourages the preservation and increase of green spaces in the building blocks. With regard to public spaces, their management aims at rebalancing the urban ecosystems by increasing and diversifying the vegetation through the plan “Nature in the city” (Nature en ville).

A joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring mission was carried out from 27 to 28 March 2024, the report of which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1181/documents.

The State Party has announced steps to remedy the negative impacts of the Tour Alta and to strengthen the protection system to avoid the possibility of future projects with adverse impacts on the OUV of the property. These actions have not been implemented yet.

The 2024 Reactive Monitoring mission found that the main recommendations made to the State Party with the aim of improving the overall state of conservation of the property since the 2023 Advisory mission, have not yet been implemented. The analysis of the current system of protection and management reveals a challenging situation, particularly with regard to the requirements arising from the World Heritage status at the local level. In recent years, several important projects have been undertaken in the property and its buffer zone without informing the Committee as required by Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines. Nor has the State Party systematically complied with the provisions of the Operational Guidelines on impact assessments. Furthermore, the protective function of the buffer zone is not guaranteed.

The State Party is committed to modifying the regulations of the SPR to strengthen the existing protection system of the property. However, as noted by the mission, the intention to allow a maximum height of 35 metres in a part of the buffer zone combined with the possibility of erecting buildings ‘with no maximum height’ in a main visual axis immediately behind the World Trade Centre would increase the vulnerability of the property, despite the fact that, in 2023, the World Heritage Committee noted with concern that the integrity of the property may no longer be guaranteed. It is thus suggested that the Committee request the State Party to exclude the possibility of buildings higher than 25 metres and seven storeys not only within the property but also in the entire buffer zone.

Regrettably, the mission found that the integration of the Tour Alta into the property appears to be problematic, due to its colour, its blind ground floor and the removal of the anticipated ‘visual permeability’ of the building. The announced urban planning study appears to be of strategic importance in order to partially mitigate the negative impact of the Tour Alta from an urban perspective. However, its mitigating potential is diminished by the ongoing project on the Place du Vieux Marché in the Notre-Dame district, which deviates from the Protection-Evolution Plan by making the public space predominantly plant-based rather than ‘mainly mineral’. The project was not notified to the World Heritage Centre as required by Paragraph 172 and its implementation shows a lack of compliance with the local system for the protection of the property.

The mission identified other projects that are likely to have an impact on one or more attributes underlying the OUV of the property. The World Heritage Committee may wish to request that project documentation be submitted to the World Heritage Centre for review by ICOMOS prior to any decision. The review of ongoing or new projects within the property also confirmed the need to strengthen the protection and management system of the property through a combined set of measures, including the systematic implementation of the Operational Guidelines on prior notification and Heritage Impact Assessments in accordance with Paragraphs 172 and 118bis respectively.

The mission also noted the challenges of restoring the concrete facades of the historic city blocks rebuilt by Auguste Perret, while seeking solutions to reduce their energy consumption, and provided ad hoc recommendations.

All of this confirms the increasing vulnerability of the property’s OUV-bearing attributes. The Reactive Monitoring mission has offered several essential measures to strengthen the property’s protection and improve its state of conservation, which the World Heritage Committee may wish to recommend to the State Party to fully implement in order to reduce the vulnerability of the property and ensure that its OUV can be maintained in the long term.