Architect Nicolas Michelin, the great-grandson of the tire brand’s co-founder, believes the uncontrolled urban sprawl of the Californian city, designed for cars, is the main cause of the mega-fires.
In an interview given to AFP, the architect and urban planner Nicolas Michelin, the great-grandson of the co-founder of the tire brand, believes that the deadly mega-fires in Los Angeles, exacerbated by the effects of climate change , re-examine less the systematic use of wooden frame houses than the uncontrolled urban sprawl of this city designed for cars.
If the long months of drought in 2024 and gusts of up to 160 km/h are largely responsible for the scale of the disaster, the proliferation of habitat in areas vulnerable to fires has not only makes the situation worse, believes Nicolas Michelin, committed to the ecological transition of architecture. If he points out, among the immediate causes of the disaster, the need to bury the overhead power lines « extremely dilapidated » and located near vegetation, to prevent the outbreak of fires, Los Angeles is, according to him, first and foremost the archetype of a city « out of context ».
« In the United States as in Europe, many cities have been built above ground, saying “The site is beautiful, I put my house there, my building here”, but without taking into account the topography, winds, sunshine and history of the site »comments Nicolas Michelin, who defends “tailor-made” urban planning.
In Los Angeles, the urban sprawl of the second city in the United States has both brought homes closer to each other, thereby removing natural barriers to fire, and eroded hectares in risk areas. Many homes affected by the flames, located on the hillside, were also inaccessible to the fire and rescue services. « We consider that the land is available, so we expand, and each time we build roads to get there even though it is the site that makes the project, and the project that makes the rule », adds Nicolas Michelin, founder of the ANMA agency.
Even if the risk of major urban fires is not as high in France, according to him there is « lessons to learn » of what is happening in Los Angeles to the extent that local French urban plans, which set the rules for land development and use, « are rarely attached to the nature of the sites ».
Read the file
Deadly fires in Los Angeles: the City of Angels ravaged
”
data-script=”https://static.lefigaro.fr/widget-video/short-ttl/video/index.js”
>
« Urban prevention »
For a very long time, in the United States as in Europe, architects tended to design projects « which impose themselves on their environment »he recalls. A legacy of Le Corbusier, a symbol of modernity today put to the test by the effects of global warming.
According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the number of severe fires is expected to increase by 14% by 2030, 30% by 2050 and 50% by the end of the 21st century. The town planning of the « urban prevention » promoted by Nicolas Michelin applies to all natural risks, notably floods. In Valencia, the scene of tragic floods at the end of October which left 231 dead, « we diverted the river so that it did not flood the center of the city, by putting asphalt everywhere and dams and we saw the result »he recalls.
In addition to town planning, the type of architecture also raises questions. In the United States, the massive use of wood, used for 93% of new homes built in 2023, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), appears to be one of the aggravating factors in the Los Angeles fires. « It’s a real problem, but it does not call into question wood construction everywhere in the world to the extent that we can encapsulate the wood with plaster or fiber cement boards to protect it from fire. »underlines the architect-urban planner, not very adept « concrete bunkers ». The risk results less from the material used than from the fact of « not building in the right place » like, for example, « at the edge of the forest » or « among the vegetation ».
And if it is necessary to densify residential areas, building to the maximum of what the planning documents allow can also present risks. « The owner wants to recover a lot of money from the sale of his land and the developer wants to make the operation profitable, but we end up with projects which are again above ground, too big, too fat, too chubby », observe Nicolas Michelin. « We must connect with nature, build a little less, a little more densely, and accept in certain places to no longer build given the new climate situation. », he concludes.
