'Cette autre nécessité essentielle: 'l'urbanisation': electrification and the Urbanisation of the Nebular City

The advent of modern utility systems together with improved transport infrastructures and information technologies introduced new spatial arrangements and temporalities in the territory. In time, these reveal a notion of urbanisation that does not only takes place in or directly adjacent to the traditional (territorially bounded) city, but in which co-evolving processes lead to differentiated territorial arrangements. Belgium’s distributed urban condition – the ‘nebular city’ – emerged out of the interplay of such multiple territorial arrangements. Often, it is explained by a historical roots in policies of industrial dispersal, while historical efforts to actively accommodate and organise the territory from the broader perspective of urbanisation are assigned a secondary role only. This article, however, takes a close look at two projects from the 1930’s that took the emerging condition of dispersal as their starting point and which both reflect on the role of urbanisation in the reproduction of the conditions in which industrialisation, among other processes of modernisation, can take place. In particular aspects surrounding the Belgian electrification are examined. Although not one of their main drivers, the electrification is both intertwined with the rise of industrial production and the development of an urban modern lifestyle. Only in the 1930’s, however, Belgian spatial planners started to explore issues concerning the distribution of electricity and its spatial and economic consequences. Both projects are embedded within the international debate on the functional city and present Belgium as a particular case. They show the general delay and mismatch between the process of industrialisation and urbanisation because of the nation’s chosen development path, both in spatial and temporal terms

Divide and Sprawl, Decline and Fall: A Comparative Critique of Euclidean Zoning

As many commentators have pointed out, the land use patterns prevalent in the United States since the advent of Euclidean-style zoning have played a direct role in the development of a surprisingly broad range of problems: “[b]y fostering or requiring low density development with a high separation of uses, Euclidean zoning is one of the great generators of suburban sprawl, with all of its environmental, economic, and social costs.” These costs include pollution, loss of wilderness and farmland, racial and socioeconomic segregation of the population, and legal obstacles to effective urban rehabilitation.6 Moreover, in combination with prevailing patterns of local funding, the socioeconomic segregation caused by Euclidean zoning perpetuates itself by channeling less well-off children into chronically underequipped public schools and stretching the resources of many urban municipalities too thin, leaving them to choose between raising property tax rates or allowing their infrastructure to decay. That devil’s bargain bolsters the tendency of middle- and higher-income people to live in suburbs rather than cities, deepening the downward spiral in which many American cities find themselves. And the damage goes even further: “many current zoning practices disregard or even work against crime prevention goals” in both cities and suburbs. This is particularly problematic in light of the fact that “Euclidean systems of separation—conventional zoning—have been implemented ubiquitously” in the United States: “[a]bout ninety-seven percent of incorporated communities zone.

Repetition and difference: Lefebvre, Le Corbusier and modernity's (im)moral landscape: a commentary

This article engages with the relationship between social theory, architectural theory and material culture. The article is a reply to an article in a previous volume of the journal in question (Smith, M. (2001) ‘Repetition and difference: Lefebvre, Le Corbusier and modernity’s (im)moral landscape’, Ethics, Place and Environment, 4(1), 31-34) and, consequently, is also a direct engagement with another academic's scholarship. It represents a critique of their work as well as a recasting of their ideas, arguing that the matter in question went beyond interpretative issues to a direct critique of another author's scholarship on both Le Corbusier and Lefebvre. A reply to my article from the author of the original article was carried in a later issue of the journal (Smith, M. (2002) ‘Ethical Difference(s): a Response to Maycroft on Le Corbusier and Lefebvre’, Ethics, Place and Environment, 5(3), 260-269)

ALFRED-DONAT AGACHE URBAN PROPOSAL FOR COSTA DO SOL. FROM THE TERRITORY TO THE CITY.

This paper reviews the development of Costa do Sol, as planned by architect urbanist Alfred-Donat Agache, for Lisbon Region in Portugal. The Plano Expansão Região Oeste de Lisboa (1934-1936) prepared by Agache and requested by Portuguese Minister of Public Works, Duarte Pacheco will be analyzed. This paper aims also to identify the principles and the theoretical foundations that have determined Agache urban vision for Lisbon City and its Territory. Finally, this paper aims to demonstrate that Alfred-Donat Agache methodological framework has applied Frederick Le Play socio-economic scientific approach. Such approach has informed the construction of a ‘civic’ urbanism that will be identified and analyzed. Two main goals seem to have guided Agache work at Costa do Sol: (i) the fully urban analysis of the city, throughout its social, economic, geographic and urban conditions (past and present) and (ii) the need to expose such analysis to the city’s inhabitants. Finally, this paper demonstrates Costa do Sol proposal to testify a comprehensive understanding of three distinct scales: (i) the territory; (ii) the city; (iii) but also the urban form. The acknowledgment of Agache ‘civic’ urban vision requests a public divulgation to allow the building of Good Practice Lessons for contemporary urban planning theory and practice

ALFRED-DONAT AGACHE URBAN PROPOSAL FOR COSTA DO SOL. FROM THE TERRITORY TO THE CITY.

This paper reviews the development of Costa do Sol, as planned by architect urbanist Alfred-Donat Agache, for Lisbon Region in Portugal. The Plano Expansão Região Oeste de Lisboa (1934-1936) prepared by Agache and requested by Portuguese Minister of Public Works, Duarte Pacheco will be analyzed. This paper aims also to identify the principles and the theoretical foundations that have determined Agache urban vision for Lisbon City and its Territory. Finally, this paper aims to demonstrate that Alfred-Donat Agache methodological framework has applied Frederick Le Play socio-economic scientific approach. Such approach has informed the construction of a ‘civic’ urbanism that will be identified and analyzed. Two main goals seem to have guided Agache work at Costa do Sol: (i) the fully urban analysis of the city, throughout its social, economic, geographic and urban conditions (past and present) and (ii) the need to expose such analysis to the city’s inhabitants. Finally, this paper demonstrates Costa do Sol proposal to testify a comprehensive understanding of three distinct scales: (i) the territory; (ii) the city; (iii) but also the urban form. The acknowledgment of Agache ‘civic’ urban vision requests a public divulgation to allow the building of Good Practice Lessons for contemporary urban planning theory and practice

La structure de l'emploi métropolitain et les comportements de mobilité des travailleurs

Affiche de projet terminal, baccalauréat en Urbanisme. Institut d'urbanisme, Université de Montréal

Reconversion de l'usine Gaspésia de Chandler. D'un site industriel à un parc récréo-industriel

Affiche de projet terminal, baccalauréat en Urbanisme. Institut d'urbanisme, Université de Montréal

Bâtir le consensus en contexte de centralité: l'apport de la Table de concertation Centre-Ville Ouest

Affiche de projet terminal, baccalauréat en Urbanisme. Institut d'urbanisme, Université de Montréal

Labelle en quête d'identité. Aménager un noyau villageois attractif

Affiche de projet terminal, baccalauréat en Urbanisme. Institut d'urbanisme, Université de Montréal