Metropolitics

France's Housing Projects Recounted Through Postcards

Florine Ballif & translated by Oliver Waine — 2026-04-21T05:00:00Z

The selection of postcards presented by Renaud Epstein in his book On est bien arrivés (“We've arrived safely”) invites us to look at France's large postwar social housing projects and their inhabitants from a different, more sensitive perspective, far removed from the usual stereotypes.
This original book sheds light on a forgotten—even ignored—object: postcards showcasing France's postwar social housing projects, or “grands ensembles”. In this book, political scientist Renaud Epstein

- Reviews / architecture, banlieue, grands ensembles, heritage, urban heritage, public housing, suburbs, social housing, urban planning, urbanism, photography, memory

A Masterpiece in Peril: The Garden Suburb of La Butte-Rouge

Renaud Epstein & translated by Oliver Waine — 2026-02-24T06:00:00Z

La Butte-Rouge, built in the mid-20th century in Paris's southern suburbs, is the archetypal example of a French cité-jardin. In a recent work retracing its history, Élise Guillerm highlights the urban and architectural qualities of this eco-neighborhood before its time, whose very existence is now threatened by an urban renewal project.
Analysis of urban policies, and particularly urban renewal policies, dispels the idea that historical knowledge can prevent the repetition of past mistakes.

- Reviews / urban planning, cité-jardin, HLM, urban heritage, heritage, Châtenay-Malabry, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, social housing, sustainable development, garden city, garden suburb, France, Paris region, Paris, history, urban history, environment, urban renewal, landscape

Dakar, Portrait of a Capital City

Armelle Choplin — 2025-09-12T05:00:00Z

Dakar, métamorphoses d'une capitale, by architects Carole Diop and Xavier Ricou, takes readers on a journey through the history of the Senegalese capital, from pre‑colonial Lebu villages to contemporary urban laboratory.
In their book Dakar, métamorphoses d'une capitale, Senegalese architects Carole Diop and Xavier Ricou present a masterful exploration of Dakar. Through meticulous archival research and iconography, the authors explore the lesser-known history of the former West African

- Reviews / Dakar, housing, history, housing policy, heritage, Africa, culture, urban planning, urban growth, West Africa, Senegal

In Norway, Housing Schemes Designed with Children in Mind

Grégoire Tortosa & translated by Oliver Waine — 2024-11-22T06:00:00Z

How can cities take more of a “child's eye view”? Grégoire Tortosa shows how avant-garde housing developments in Oslo and Tromsø, in Norway, have been designed to encourage children to play freely.
From the 1920s onwards, the Modernist movement defined a new conception of the city. By proposing a “coherent set of reasoning principles recognized and used as a reference,” it set itself up as an urban paradigm (Héran 2015, p. 33), with functionalism, technicism, the rejection of all heritage,

- From the Field / cars, Norvège, urban planning, spatial planning, urban design, urban development, housing, housing estates, housing projects, children, play

On a Road to Nowhere? Military Urbanism and the Architecture of Segregation

Tim Cunningham — 2024-05-03T05:00:00Z

Comparing the experiences of Belfast, Northern Ireland, with the United States, Tim Cunningham shows how physical barriers, especially roads, can precipitate the dismembering of targeted communities from the wider city ecosystem, in turn accentuating patterns of spatial inequality and deprivation.
By the late 1960s, Belfast was experiencing many of the secular challenges that afflicted industrial cities across western Europe and the US at that time (Bryan 2012). Economic crises precipitated

- Essays / Belfast, Northern Ireland, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States, infrastructure, segregation, urban planning, urbanism, military urbanism, socio-spatial inequalities, barriers

Working-Class Ecology Versus Olympic Urbanism

Flaminia Paddeu & translated by Oliver Waine — 2024-04-19T05:00:00Z

In Aubervilliers, north of Paris, swathes of a community garden—the Jardins Ouvriers des Vertus—have been destroyed as part of preparations for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Flaminia Paddeu recounts the action taken by some of the Vertus gardeners and defends calls for a “right to land in the city”
Winter 2021 in Aubervilliers, in the northern inner suburbs of Paris. Behind a building site, between gardens and a few old buildings, a group of gardeners and residents with placards chant slogans such

- From the Field / Paris, Olympic Games, mobilization, urban planning, Paris region, Aubervilliers, Seine-Saint-Denis, ecology, community gardens, gardens, Greater Paris, Île-de-France

Fifteen-Minute Prisons? A Reflection on the Far-Right Backlash Against Sustainable Development in Britain

Garrett L. Grainger — 2023-10-04T09:46:01Z

In an era of increasing political polarization, right-wing activists are targeting sustainable planning initiatives. Analyzing online media coverage and posts on X (formerly Twitter), Garrett L. Grainger explores why activists are contesting “15‑minute cities” in Oxfordshire and how resistance to them reaches across the globe and affects local planning efforts.
Nearly 2,000 far-right activists protested Oxfordshire County Council's “15‑minute city” plan in February 2023. That demonstration

- From the Field / United Kingdom, 15-minute city, far right, urban planning, sustainable urban planning, sustainable development

The Emergence of Ecological Thinking in the City

Charles-François Mathis & translated by Oliver Waine — 2022-09-27T05:00:00Z

What place does ecological thinking have in the field of urban planning? In describing the use of vegetation in cities since the 19th century, Charles-François Mathis examines the historical evolution of planning choices and the foundations of a new “ecological urbanism.”
Wherever I may go today, if the opportunity arises, if I have an hour to spare in an unknown city, a complacent drift takes me along the streets, towards these placid chlorophyllous enclaves encircled nowadays by the

- Essays / landscape, nature, gardens, ecology, parks, urban development, urban planning, environment, history

The Second Coming of the Accessory Dwelling Unit

Joseph Weil Huennekens — 2021-10-26T05:00:00Z

Joseph Weil Huennekens discusses the history of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in the context of housing in the suburbs, and argues that fair housing requires more than ADU legalization.
Planners and advocates have long promoted accessory dwelling units (ADUs) as a solution to the affordable housing crisis. According to proponents, ADUs are a low-impact way to unleash new production—a corrective to years of racist housing policy that have kept multifamily options out of the suburbs (Kazis

- Debates / urban planning, land-use planning, housing, housing policy, suburbs, accessory dwelling units, Long Island, New York

Cities in the Age of Financialization

2021-06-18T05:00:00Z

Over the past four decades, the financialization of capitalism has transformed economies, societies, and urban space. This series of articles examines the growing involvement of financial actors, instruments, and rationales in the production of the urban built environment; the role of public authorities in this process; and their social, political, and spatial consequences.
---- ▼ Jump to the list of articles in this series ▼ Since the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, the financial

- Series / finance, housing, financialization, real estate, urban project, urban development, development, urban planning