by BOUBACAR DIALLO
BZINC covering the roofs of central Paris has given the French capital’s skyline its distinctive grey hue for almost two centuries.
Now the roofs and the workers who create and care for them are aiming to enter a select heritage club to showcase a profession adapting to the challenges of climate change.
The French Culture Ministry has chosen the zinc roofers as the country’s entry for the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage to be decided at the United Nations’ body’s session in Paraguayan capital Asuncion in December.
The craftsmanship of roofers and other ornamentalists who have sculpted the capital’s skyline will be among 67 candidacies vying to join other iconic heritage sites such as India’s Taj Mahal.
According to the city’s urbanism agency Apur, Paris has 128,000 roofs covering a surface area of 32 million sq m, of which 21.4 million are of the traditional zinc-covered variety.
“Paris seen from above, it’s obvious you’re not in another city,” said an enthused Delphine Burkli, mayor of the capital’s ninth district.
Burkli helped initiate the French bid and first proposed in 2014 to add the roofs to UNESCO’s heritage list.
But the plan has since changed as it is “very complicated”, said Gilles Mermet, coordinator of the bid.
The campaign to etch the roofs into the prestigious books of world heritage stumbled when Paris town hall withdrew its support.
Mermet said it was “afraid” of “no longer being able to build in Paris without the agreement of UNESCO”.
“In the end, it was more interesting to showcase the profession itself ” — which struggles to recruit — more than the roofs as such, to protect the beauty of the urban landscape, he added.
Every morning, Paris faces a shortage of about 500 roofers to complete the work needed, according to Meriadec Aula- nier of the trade union bringing together companies in the plumbing and climate engineering industries.
The French candidacy aims to encourage thinking about the future of the city and a craft forced to adapt in the face of climate change, added Burkli.
The zinc the covers almost 80% of Parisian roofs has come under criticism for its role in overheating buildings.
Darker roofs absorb more energy from sun rays — and that is bad news when summer heatwaves are becoming longer, more frequent and more intense as the planet warms up.
An Apur study in 2022 found that 42% of roofs in Paris had a weak reflection capacity, meaning they absorbed more heat.
These insulate poorly and “contribute to the rise in temperatures in homes”, according to an assessment carried out by the Council of Paris in 2022 titled “Paris at 50°C”.
The study showed that a zinc roof heated the surrounding air during the day, up to 10°C above the home’s temperature and 7°C warmer than the day’s weather.
Nightfall brought little relief: The homes under the roofs heated 6°C more than the temperatures on the lower floors.
“At night, the zinc at the surface cools down. On the other hand, the heat continues to penetrate inside and that’s where there’s overheating in the homes,” said Eytan Levi, an architect and co-founder of Roofscapes. — AFP
- This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition
