Paul-Henry Chombart de Lauwe (4 August 1913, Cambrai – 11 January 1998, Antony), was a noted French urban sociologist.
[1] In the 1930s, Paul-Henry Chombart de Lauwe studied sculpture and philosophy at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he also became interested in ethnology and sociology.
After the defeat of the French army in 1940, he first fled to North Africa but returned to France after the armistice, where he cooperated with the Resistance.
[1] The postwar housing shortage raised Chombart de Lauwe's interest in urban sociology.
Based on this research, he proposed significant changes to the planning of Paris, including public access to the city's monuments, avoiding the segregation of residential and industrial land uses - a mantra of modernist urban planning at the time, and public engagement in urban renewal projects.