Large-scale urban development projects in Europe

Bringing about changes in the Paris Ile-de-France city-region is the ambition that the Regional Council of Ile-de-France has set itself in adopting its new Regional Structure Plan.

Three major challenges that are common to most European metropolises need to be taken up:

• Reducing social, environmental, and territorial disparities
• Anticipating climate and energy changes
• Developing jobs and economic excellence in Ile-de-France and developing the Paris region's influence

Through the Regional Structure Plan, the strategy consists in promoting the Ile-de-France as a city-region that is more compact and more dense, that is better structured, and whose infrastructures and facilities impart consistency from the core of the conurbation to the rural areas around it. Underpinned by its spatial organisation, the metropolis can assert its dynamism, which is a source of economic, cultural, and social attractiveness.

Large-scale urban development projects are showcases for that dynamism. Powerful levers for urban regeneration, they must incorporate the requirements of sustainable development, extract added value from our know-how, and reinforce our creativity. In Ile-de-France, Paris Rive-Gauche, la Plaine Saint-Denis or Seine-Amont, are, to date, some of the most emblematic projects that symbolise such dynamism. Others will take up the torch tomorrow, in the form of major development projects or new sustainable communities.

Analysis of large-scale urban development projects conducted by other European metropolises, in London, Berlin or Amsterdam, in Milan, Barcelona or Copenhagen, and in Glasgow, Rotterdam, or Genoa, is presented in this issue no. 146 of Les Cahiers de l'IAURIF. They are so many examples, enriching our knowledge and encouraging us to nurture large-scale urban development projects in Ile-de-France that come up to our expectations and that contribute to making Ile-de-France an examplary "eco-metropolis".