New Orleans

New Orleans occupies a bend of the Mississippi River within low, humid territory surrounded by swamps and lakes. The city grew as a port between inland North America, the Caribbean and the Atlantic, producing a singular mixture of African, Caribbean, Indigenous and European communities. Music, food, architecture and religion developed within a deeply unequal society marked by slavery, segregation and commerce.

The city lives on water and against it. Levees, pumps and canals allow settlement below sea level, while storms and wetland loss create continual vulnerability. Understanding New Orleans requires connecting culture, landscape, memory and daily life.

The Mississippi

The river organised commerce, transport and urban growth.

Ships, docks and warehouses connected plantations, inland cities and Atlantic routes.

The bend of the Mississippi defines the form of many neighbourhoods and remains a major visual and economic reference.

Woldenberg Riverfront

The riverfront opens views towards ships, bridges and the opposite bank.

The area turns part of the former working port into public space.

The landscape recalls the historic centre developing towards the river.

French Quarter

The French Quarter preserves narrow streets, courtyards, balconies and buildings from several periods.

Much of its present architecture reflects rebuilding under Spanish rule after eighteenth-century fires.

The district combines housing, commerce, cultural institutions and an intense tourism economy.

Jackson Square

Jackson Square brings together Saint Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo, the Presbytère and historic buildings.

Artists, musicians and vendors keep the plaza active.

The ensemble concentrates colonial, religious, political and cultural memory.

The Cabildo

The Cabildo served as the seat of colonial government and the setting for the transfer of Louisiana to the United States.

Its exhibitions present French, Spanish and American periods.

The building reveals changes of sovereignty within a city of complex identity.

The Presbytère

The Presbytère contains exhibitions on Mardi Gras and Hurricane Katrina.

Carnival and disaster appear as two central dimensions of local memory.

The institution connects celebration, identity, vulnerability and reconstruction.

Royal Street

Royal Street preserves galleries, shops, homes and historic architecture.

Its scale presents a different side of activity within the district.

Courtyards, façades and balconies reveal adaptation to climate and urban density.

Congo Square

Congo Square recalls gatherings of enslaved and free Africans and African descendants.

Music, dance and commerce allowed traditions to be preserved and transformed within colonial society.

The place holds a central position in the cultural history of New Orleans.

Tremé

Tremé is one of the oldest historic African American neighbourhoods in the United States.

Churches, Creole homes, clubs and cultural spaces reveal free communities of colour, segregation and resistance.

The district played a decisive role in the development of local music and public traditions.

Jazz

Jazz emerged through the meeting of African rhythms, brass bands, blues, ragtime, Caribbean music and European traditions.

It did not begin in one venue or through one community.

Clubs, streets, churches and parades formed a musical ecosystem that transformed world culture.

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans and carried jazz to an international audience.

His technique, voice and stage presence influenced popular music deeply.

His story connects poverty, community, innovation and global fame.

New Orleans Jazz Museum

The museum occupies the former United States Mint and presents instruments, recordings and biographies.

Collections connect jazz, the port, technology and urban life.

The building places music history within a wider economic landscape.

Frenchmen Street

Frenchmen Street contains venues, bars, restaurants and live music.

The corridor retains a strong musical identity within Marigny.

Its activity shows music remaining everyday labour as well as heritage.

Second lines

Second lines are community processions led by brass bands.

Social clubs, funerals and celebrations sustain this tradition.

Dance and music turn the street into a space of memory, identity and belonging.

Black Masking Indians

Black Masking Indians create exceptionally complex beaded suits.

The tradition combines African American history, Indigenous references, artistic rivalry and community organisation.

Every suit represents months of labour and knowledge transmission.

Slavery and the port city

New Orleans was one of the major markets for enslaved people in the United States.

Commerce, construction, households and plantations depended on forced labour.

Urban wealth cannot be separated from this history.

Whitney Plantation

Whitney Plantation centres its interpretation on enslaved people.

Testimony, memorials and historic spaces present labour, violence and community life.

The site changes the traditional plantation perspective by placing exploited people at the centre of the story.

Garden District

Garden District contains large homes, gardens and tree-lined avenues.

The neighbourhood grew through merchants and American families arriving after the Louisiana Purchase.

Its architecture expresses wealth, expansion and social difference.

Cemeteries

New Orleans cemeteries are known for raised tombs and stone structures.

Their form responds to funerary traditions, climate and ground conditions.

These spaces act as archives of families, epidemics and urban transformation.

Streetcars

Streetcars connect Downtown, Garden District and other neighbourhoods.

The Saint Charles line crosses tree-lined avenues, universities and residential areas.

Transport belongs to daily landscape and urban memory.

City Park

City Park contains oaks, lagoons, gardens, art and cultural spaces.

Its green scale contrasts with the density of the French Quarter.

The park presents a quieter relationship between water, vegetation and public life.

Louisiana Children’s Museum

The museum presents water, food, river and community life through interactive spaces.

Its position in City Park integrates learning, landscape and play.

The institution connects childhood experience with systems supporting the region.

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras combines parades, music, floats, societies and neighbourhood traditions.

The celebration has Catholic, African, Creole and American roots.

Every krewe constructs symbols, rituals and forms of representation of its own.

Black Masking Indians and carnival

Black Masking Indians belong to a tradition distinct from major commercial parades.

Their routes, chants and suits express community history and cultural pride.

Carnival therefore appears as a collection of diverse practices rather than one spectacle.

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic flooding in 2005 after failures in levees and protection systems.

Unequal evacuation and institutional response affected Black and lower-income communities especially strongly.

The disaster exposed social and urban vulnerabilities that continue to shape the city.

Lower Ninth Ward

Lower Ninth Ward suffered extreme destruction during Katrina.

Recovery was slow and uneven, and many families did not return.

The district preserves memories of community, loss and resistance.

Delta wetlands

Swamps, marshes and mangroves form natural barriers against storms.

Canals, extraction, dams and sea-level rise accelerated their loss.

The health of these ecosystems is directly connected with the future of New Orleans.

Creole and Cajun food

Gumbo, jambalaya, po’boys, red beans and rice, seafood and beignets reveal African, French, Spanish, Indigenous and Caribbean influences.

Creole and Cajun traditions have different histories while influencing one another.

Food acts as memory of migration, labour and adaptation.

A city turning memory into sound

New Orleans remains memorable for the relationship between music, water and community. The Mississippi, French Quarter, Tremé, Congo Square, streetcars, wetlands and neighbourhoods affected by Katrina form a city where slavery, freedom, celebration and vulnerability overlap.

Its singularity lies in the coexistence of Creole culture, delta landscape and family life.