Metropolitics

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

Covid-19, War, and Working-Class Neighborhoods

Pierre Gilbert & translated by Oliver Waine — 2020-06-05T05:00:00Z

The residents of France's working-class neighborhoods, accused of exacerbating the coronavirus pandemic through their supposed “incivility,” have been the target of speeches that have sought to reactivate the fantasy of the urban ghetto. In reality, however, multiple sources of inequality—housing, health, transportation—have in fact made lockdown especially difficult in housing projects and exposed their residents to a greater risk of infection.
The epidemic that is sweeping the planet is an

- Debates / inequalities, Covid-19, coronavirus, lockdown, housing, social housing, housing estates, housing projects, banlieue, suburbs, working classes, working-class neighborhoods, overoccupancy, health, transport, public transportation, mass transit, France, pandemic

Can Cannabis Be Legalized in France Without Inflaming the Banlieues?

Christian Ben Lakhdar & Aymeric Reyre & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-07-05T05:00:00Z

France is a place of paradoxes: cannabis is widely consumed, and yet legalization does not seem to be on the cards, despite successful measures implemented elsewhere. This reluctance is linked in particular to a fear of destabilizing local economies in working-class neighborhoods. Aymeric Reyre and Christian Ben Lakhdar highlight the unfounded nature of this argument, and use evidence from other countries to underline the potential benefits of such reforms.
While the wind of legalization has

- Debates / drugs, drug dealing, legalization of cannabis, urban economy, banlieue, housing estates, housing projects, social housing

The complex representations of working-class residential towers

Rachid Kaddour & translated by Oliver Waine — 2016-02-26T05:55:00Z

Rachid Kaddour's analysis of the trajectory of perceptions of the Plein‑Ciel tower in Saint‑Étienne in south-eastern France shows that certain housing tower blocks can take on a system of representations that is far more complex than the often deprecating views presented in discourse intended to legitimize urban renewal.
---- Series: The Resurgence of Towers in European Cities The general image of towers in France is still very much associated with blocks of working-class housing, owing to

- From the Field / France, monument, housing projects, urban renewal, housing estates, towers, representations, Saint-Étienne

Urban renewal and the “defensible space” model: the growing impact of security issues on the way our cities develop

Camille Gosselin & translated by Oliver Waine — 2016-02-12T06:00:00Z

In transforming the urban planning and architecture of social-housing estates, urban-renewal policies are not just about changing the image or populations of these neighbourhoods. They also seek to control public spaces more effectively. Guided by the principles of “situational prevention”, the implementation of such policies reflects the growing influence of security-related issues in urban development.
The French urban renewal policy initiated in 2004 presented a threefold objective: to

- Essays / France, public space, housing projects, urban renewal, social housing, urban development, housing estates, public policy, security, surveillance, situational prevention, defensible space

“Grands Ensembles”: Retracing a History of Rejection

Stéphane Füzesséry & translated by Oliver Waine — 2016-01-15T05:55:00Z

From its very beginnings, the urban model of the “grand ensemble” – the large-scale high-rise housing estate – has appealed to film-makers. For half a century, these films have not only recorded and established image-types but also changed people's representations of these neighbourhoods – and, more generally, their rejection of them.
Reflections – and doubts – concerning urban policy in France currently abound, particularly on the direction that should be taken by the second phase of the

- Reviews / Île-de-France, Paris region, housing projects, urban policy, urban renewal, housing estates, suburbs, neighborhood, representations, cinema

The “ordinary” Italian suburbs: exploring the apartment buildings of the middle classes

Thomas Pfirsch & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-12-11T06:00:00Z

Through the detailed histories of 23 apartment buildings and their inhabitants, a team of historians and architects show how Italy became a society of homeowners during the boom of the 1950s and '60s. This book sheds light for the first time on the history of this little-known aspect of the private housing sector that nevertheless concerns the majority of Italian households, and highlights the – often underestimated – role played by public policy in its development.
As the debates on urban

- Reviews / homeownership, housing, developers, Rome, housing estates, Italy, middle classes, Milan, Turin, self-segregation, owner-occupiership, co-ownership, condominium

Using heritage status to combat segregation: the case of French housing estates

2014-10-22T04:50:00Z

Challenging the idea that demolishing housing estates is all it takes to eradicate the social problems with which they are associated, the authors here instead argue for collective housing schemes to be recognised as heritage assets so that they can be renovated and returned to their original function as places of good-quality housing.
Today, it is acknowledged that for the last 30 years or more – ever since the first riots in the Lyon suburbs and what the media at the time referred to as

- Debates / France, banlieue, segregation, housing, housing projects, Marseille, social housing, housing estates, Lyon, suburbs, heritage

Splitting suburban homes

2014-10-01T04:50:00Z

Many local stakeholders in the Paris region have expressed concern regarding the emergence of a process of “spontaneous” subdivision of the area's suburban fabric. This dynamic, while potentially virtuous, is proving hard to predict by authorities and is causing uncontrolled densification that is altering the day-to-day functioning of the neighbourhoods concerned. In addition, it may also be masking questionable practices on the part of unscrupulous landlords.
Over the last decade, growth in

- From the Field / Paris region, housing, urban planning, urban development, housing estates, suburbs, Greater Paris, densification, subdivisions, suburban subdivision, real-estate renewal

“Soft densification” in Canada

Anastasia Touati & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-06-05T09:41:09Z

Against the backdrop of a housing crisis, a number of local authorities in Ontario, Canada, have developed policies to encourage the creation of “accessory apartments” or “secondary suites” – in other words, new dwellings within single-family homes. Anastasia Touati analyses the advantages, as well as the ambiguities, of this novel form of residential densification.
Urban densification: a range of possibilities
For the last 15 years, densification has been at the heart of sustainable urban

- From the Field / housing, density, housing estates, Canada, densification, subdivisions, crisis, affordable housing, accessory dwelling units