To Re-Create Life in the Cities : The LICI Project

Abstract

Actions of urban renewal represent important investments in our cities. They often generate empty spaces that are underused, misused or simply not used at all. When looking for an architectural gesture, the concern of many projects focuses on aesthetics rather than on the promotion of community well-being. This creates so many problems in city hubs, gives rise to disjointed urban centres and generates a worrying absence of bonds between districts which emphasizes the city centres’ lack of attractiveness. Thus we reinforce the importance of one of the four bases of architecture (Belmont, Les 4 fondements de l’architecture, 1987) called “commoditas” (architecture is made for the inhabitants). That means that aesthetics are not always the most important part of the project. The objectives should be to improve the social interaction, increase cultural exchanges, develop an economic vitality and link all stakeholders. It is thus important to understand what makes an urban space attractive or not to the user, to define what needs to be carried out to turn today’s empty space into tomorrow’s destination. A first step is thus to question related communities and potential users by using a bottom-up approach, the user being at the centre of the reflection, instead of the traditional top-down approach. When rethinking the space, the impulse should come from the communities. It is in fact a move toward a “societal” approach. According to Kotler (Marketing Management, 2003), the societal marketing concept should, on the one hand, determine the needs, wants, and interests of the targets and on the other hand, fulfill target communities’ requests effectively and efficiently in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer’s and the society’s well-being. We can thus apply to urban planning traditional marketing concepts as a unique selling proposition (USP) which evolves, in this case, to the urban lifestyle point (ULP) but which basically follows the same process. By reclaiming public spaces for public use, the ULP aims at (re)designing the space following the feedback from communities with animations, events, and the setup of various amenities which implies the daily Int Adv Econ Res (2015) 21:125–126 DOI 10.1007/s11294-014-9506-8