Le territoire de Lille-Métropole sous l'emprise de la médiatisation des projets urbains

Abstract

Urban regeneration in the cities of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region could have taken specific forms, if the forms of their own identity had first been taken into consideration. First as free cities and then as cities of trade and industry, their urban morphology expresses the importance given to transport axes to provide their structure, and to terrace houses as the type of housing. Those large forms resulting from the rational assembling of terrace houses established a specific urban landscape. During the two last centuries of urban history, the reference to Paris in the 1 9th century, then to other forms of embellishment, of reconstruction and of new towns, were used as models for development of the urban territory. Urban projects to day are in the grip of the media : their reality seems less important than their capacity to gather actors behind a slogan and to catch the attention of the press and of an internationnal audience. Urban marketing becomes a perequisite to any urban project and under this change of priority, the cultural identity of a territory moulded through century of history no longer comes as an essential basis for the future of the areas.