Le projet de l’Union à l’épreuve de la décroissance et de l’idéal métropolitain. Chronique d’une dérive.

Abstract

The Union projects serve as typical examples of large urban development projects, implemented by public authorities since the 1990s in Europe and North America, to redevelop degraded areas marked by brownfields. These areas experienced a succession of setbacks and difficulties that were not unexpected. Confronted with the unique context of urban shrinkage, their operational revaluation mechanisms were blocked by building difficulties, despite construction being one of the major conditions of the urban project. These difficulties, although anticipated, were negated by the pursuit of an agglomeration project aimed at stimulating metropolitanization, causing its feasibility conditions to be derailed. Thus, this case study questions both the importance of context and its consideration, as well as the distortions between the desired future and the conditions for the actual realization of the project.

Keywords

• Large Urban Development Projects
• Urban Shrinkage
• Derealization
• Metropolization
• Diachronic Approach