This Wednesday, December 4, UNESCO added the know-how of these roof workers to its list of intangible cultural heritage, while the profession must today adapt to the thermal renovation of buildings.
This Wednesday, December 4, UNESCO added to its list of intangible cultural heritage the know-how of Parisian roofers, zinc workers and ornamentalists, recognition for these shapers of the roofs of Paris who are today on the front lines of adaptation to climate change. Taking their name from zinc, this gray metal which covers nearly 80% of Parisian roofs, the roofers and zinc workers (installation and restoration), along with the ornamentalists (decoration), also contributed to the reconstruction of Notre-Dame Cathedral.
“I have always seen this candidacy as the promotion of a heritage that projects into the future” rejoices Delphine Bürkli, mayor of the 9th arrondissement of Paris, “moved and proud” to see the outcome of this candidacy that she initiated ten years earlier, in 2014. “Paris without its roofs is Paris without its Eiffel Tower” summarizes the Parisian elected official.
Selected by the Ministry of Culture at the end of 2022 and presented to UNESCO as France's choice in March 2023, the application is one of the 67 files studied – there is, for example, also henna – this week by the Intergovernmental Safeguarding Committee of intangible cultural heritage, gathered since Monday in Asuncion, Paraguay.
“Gesture recognition”
The application, initially intended to classify Parisian roofs and its professions as UNESCO world heritage sites, a complex procedure, was finally submitted in 2017 to have these two professions recognized as French intangible cultural heritage, then at UNESCO. “What we wanted first of all was to make the gesture known, to make known this profession which is passed down from generation to generation,” explains Mériadec Aulanier, general delegate of the Union of climate engineering and plumbing coverage companies, who deplores the “image deficit” from which the profession suffers.
“The problem with this profession is that it is on the roofs, so it is not known because in the street, we do not see them,” summarizes the project leader. He now hopes to attract young talents thanks to this registration, while the profession, which has between 5,000 and 6,000 roofers today in Paris, has lacked manpower for years.
“There is pride for them to say that their profession will be recognized internationally,” rejoices Gilles Mermet, photographer ambassador of the roofs of Paris and coordinator of the UNESCO application. He points to the «social vision» recognition of this largely working-class profession.
“Haute couture”
This know-how, born in the 19th century during the overhaul of Paris by Prefect Haussmann, who generalized the installation of slate and zinc roofs (two materials that became less expensive thanks to the industrial revolution), must today be adapt to the thermal renovation of buildings. “Roofs are at the forefront of climate change, because their adaptation comes into confrontation with aesthetics and heritage,” summarizes Alexandre Florentin, advisor to the environmental group at Paris town hall and president of the study Paris at 50°C published in 2023.
Particularly blamed is the albedo effect of roofs (the lighter the roofs, the more they reflect sunlight, limiting heat absorption), while a little more than half of Parisian roofs have an albedo clear, according to a report from the Parisian Urban Planning Workshop (Apur) in 2022. During summer heatwaves, the rooms located under the roofs, formerly reserved for maids, become real “thermal kettles” explains the elected environmentalist.
“The roofer is the first to feel the effects of climate change”, points out Mériadec Aulanier, specifying that the profession “always knew how to adapt”. Among the many solutions implemented today to lower the temperature, roof insulation, the installation of exterior blinds and terraces or even the installation of vegetation or light coverings on roofs.
“This job is truly haute couture,” confirms Alexandre Florentin. “But at 45°C, you have to change the fabrics,” analyzes the one who is today calling for the creation of general statements on heritage and adaptation. “All the challenges are before us,” summarizes Delphine Bürkli, for whom the recognition of these professions by UNESCO is above all that of “urban canopy” Parisian.
