Metropolitics

Urban Public Transit: A Choice Between Two Models

Arnaud Passalacqua & Philippe Poinsot & translated by Oliver Waine — 2025-12-02T06:00:00Z

Public transportation has a decisive role to play in any meaningful ecological transition. And yet key players in the sector continue to prioritize technical innovations that consume huge quantities of resources. Arnaud Passalacqua and Philippe Poinsot re‑examine past experiences in France in order to identify solutions that are more technically modest and available in the shorter term.
Urban public transportation is considered an important tool for public policies aimed at promoting a

- Essays / funding, innovation, mass transit, mobility, model, public transportation, resources, technical innovation, transport, urban technical networks

Vancouverism: hybridisation and spread of an urban model

Nicolas Douay & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-06-12T04:50:00Z

The transformation that downtown Vancouver has undergone – which has since become a reference, known as “Vancouverism” – has involved building residential towers and creating public spaces that pay visual attention to their surroundings. Nicolas Douay looks into the origins of these transformations and the ways in which this new urban model has been disseminated.
---- Series: The Renewed Relevance of Urban-Planning Models? In a context of metropolisation, cities create images, values and

- From the Field / architecture, urban planning, real estate, Canada, downtown, city centre, dissemination of urban references, model, Vancouver, Hong Kong

Transition towns, or the desire for an urban alternative

Adrien Krauz & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-05-15T04:50:00Z

The entry of the term “transition” into the vocabulary of public action shows that questions regarding how to build more sustainable models for society are still relevant. The response offered by “transition towns” is a model for action involving a variety of local and citizen-led initiatives that are based on a method for sustainable environmental development called permaculture.
---- Series: The Renewed Relevance of Urban-Planning Models? Faced with the threat of an environmental crisis,

- Essays / utopia, sustainable development, LETS, local currencies, urban agriculture, agriculture, resilience, model, sustainable urban planning, permaculture, transition towns

Starchitects: walking the line between individuality and conformity

Géraldine Molina & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-02-19T05:50:00Z

The stars of the worlds of architecture and urban planning are prime targets of research, with the aim of understanding the imaginative processes involved in the production of our cities. Géraldine Molina takes a closer look at today's “starchitects” and shows how they have helped to personalise thinking and action regarding the city over the last three decades, while at the same time – and somewhat paradoxically – leading to a certain normalisation of practices.
---- Series: The Renewed

- Essays / architecture, urban planning, profession, star system, distinction, urban project, model, conformity

Is there a model for sustainable urban planning?

Claire Carriou & Olivier Ratouis & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-11-27T05:50:00Z

Claire Carriou and Olivier Ratouis reconsider the theoretical sources of sustainable urban planning from the standpoint of the history of urban-planning doctrines. They show that the references in question are no longer constrained by the classic categories (“culturalism” and “progressivism”) established by Françoise Choay on the basis of textual analyses of planning and development treaties.
---- Series: The Renewed Relevance of Urban-Planning Models? Thinking about urban planning in terms

- Essays / urban planning, urban development, urban knowledge, doctrine, model, sustainable city, sustainable urban planning, treaties