urban planning

Essays

Starchitects: walking the line between individuality and conformity

Géraldine Molina & translated by Oliver Waine - 19 February 2015
The stars of the worlds of architecture and urban planning are prime targets of research, with the aim of...
Essays

Is there a model for sustainable urban planning?

Claire Carriou & Olivier Ratouis & translated by Oliver Waine - 27 November 2014
Claire Carriou and Olivier Ratouis reconsider the theoretical sources of sustainable urban planning from the...
From the Field

Nantes’ urban project: putting the Bilbao model to the test

Amélie Nicolas & translated by Oliver Waine - 13 November 2014
The experiences of Bilbao and its urban transformations have been shared and integrated into the urban-planning...
From the Field

Splitting suburban homes

Anne-Claire Davy & Peggy Mertiny & Mélanie Richard & translated by Oliver Waine - 1 October 2014
Many local stakeholders in the Paris region have expressed concern regarding the emergence of a process of...
Essays

Territorial Equality in France: A Historical Perspective

Matthew Wendeln - 4 June 2014
Once the basis of French regional planning, the goal of national balance has made a comeback in France under the...
From the Field

The burst bubble and the privatisation of planning in Tokyo

Raphaël Languillon-Aussel & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 February 2014
Since the early 1990s and the collapse of Japan’s asset price bubble, developments in Marunouchi – Tokyo’s main...
Reviews

Henri Lefebvre for architects

Grégory Busquet & translated by Oliver Waine - 11 December 2013
Although Henri Lefebvre is well known for introducing the concept of “the right to the city”, his work is little used...
Essays

The future of planning?

Simone Abram - 13 November 2013
Rather than looking at the designs that planning promises, anthropologist Simone Abram prefers to consider planning...
From the Field

The metropolisation of “Roma Capitale”: the view from the Tiber delta

Aurélien Delpirou & Dominique Rivière & translated by Oliver Waine - 6 November 2013
Far from the stereotype of the “sleeping beauty”, the Italian capital is the scene of an important and unique...
Reviews

Beirut: the city beneath the surface

Céline Barrère & translated by Oliver Waine - 23 October 2013
The geographer Éric Verdeil distances himself from the dominant analyses that constantly depict Beirut as a “city at...
Debates

The poetry of the urban landscape

Émeline Bailly & translated by Oliver Waine - 9 October 2013
The ideal of “nature in the city” is a key characteristic of many urban projects. Émeline Bailly shows that the...
Reviews

La Défense: the Planning and Politics of a Global Business District

Matthew Wendeln - 26 June 2013
La Défense, Europe’s largest business district, is the outcome of a singular mix of state planning, architectural...
Debates

The Negotiated Urbanism of Grand Paris Express

Lara Belkind - 12 June 2013
In the fragmented context of Paris’s metropolitan and regional politics, the Grand Pari(s) design consultation and...
From the Field

Renovation and consultation: Parisian approaches to redeveloping public spaces

Bruno Gouyette & translated by Oliver Waine - 6 February 2013
When renovating its public spaces, how does the city of Paris implement consultation processes required by French law...
From the Field

Ambivalences of Gender Planning

Sandra Huning - 23 January 2013
How can a gender approach be integrated into urban planning? Sandra Huning here considers this question and presents...
Reviews

Marne-la-Vallée: from new town to true town?

Laurent Cailly & translated by Oliver Waine - 31 October 2012
The redefinition of relations between a city’s centre and its outskirts is often described as the rise of a...
Essays

Settlement policy in Israel. Transforming Jerusalem’s contested metropolitan landscape

Marco Allegra - 12 September 2012
In Jerusalem, competition for land is central to the ongoing conflict. Marco Allegra shows how ideology can be less...
Reviews

The new spaces of consumption

Andrea Mubi Brighenti - 30 May 2012
Recent retail spaces are giving a new shape to our everyday environment. Kärrholm proposes new concepts to better...
From the Field

Transport and urban planning in Rome: an unholy marriage?

Aurélien Delpirou & translated by Oliver Waine - 4 January 2012
Aurélien Delpirou brings a new perspective to the debate initiated by Luis Santos y Ganges. He highlights the fact...
Debates

Kanal İstanbul: a “crazy project” serving political ambitions

Yoann Morvan & translated by Oliver Waine - 7 December 2011
The current proliferation of mega-projects in the Istanbul metropolitan area is both undeniable and impressive. The...
Debates

Integrating the train into the city: some thoughts from Spain

Luis Santos y Ganges & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 21 September 2011
Are inner-city railways condemned to form boundaries or barriers within the city? Based on a critique of the...
Debates

Building cities without young urban planners?

Jean-Philippe Gallardo & translated by Claudio Cambon - 2 February 2011
The National Collective of Young Urban Planners (CNJU) is sounding the alarm bell about the discrimination that...

Series

Horizons in the Housing Struggle
Black Power and Black Self-Determination in a New Time and New Spaces
Urban Wastes, Present and Future
New York Dossier: The Food Industry Faces the Covid‑19 Pandemic
Cities in the Age of Financialization
Contemporary Housing Struggles: Crises, Activism, and Critical Research
New York Tech Dossier: The Dark Side of New York’s Tech Economy
Progressive Mayors and Urban Social Movements
Land Rights in the Urban Global South

Featured

From the Field

Covid-19 Transformed New York’s Destination Food Markets

Ivana Mellers - 5 October 2021
Ivana Mellers analyzes how New York’s destination markets—key spaces of economic and social interactions—coped during...
From the Field

Moving Inside City Limits: The Urban Mobility of Undocumented Youth

Stephen P. Ruszczyk - 4 June 2019
The urban context and public transportation shape how undocumented youths move within cities. In a comparison of New...
Reviews

Filming Ethnic Diversity in New York

Stéphane Tonnelat & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 21 October 2016
Frederick Wiseman’s fortieth documentary film, In Jackson Heights (2015), returns to an urban theme explored in...
From the Field

Looking Inward, Across the Border

Harel Shapira - 19 April 2016
In the constellation of anti-immigrant politics in the United States, groups like the Minutemen, civilians who patrol...
Essays

The Political Aesthetics of Drag

Shaka McGlotten - 13 October 2015
Drag, or the diverse art form and culture of performance that typically plays with gender and sex, is an integral...
Debates

Disarm the Police

Gregory Smithsimon - 29 September 2015
In the current political debates about discriminatory policing, there has been a lack of serious discussion of...

Other resources online

“Our hallway’s big enough to play football in!” The council housing...

The Guardian
Boasting two-sink kitchens, Tower Court in north London is tailored for the Haredi Jewish community – but its...

Saudi Arabia: How is Mobility Being Transformed in the Oil Kingdom?

Mobile Lives Forum
04 April 2025, by Aniss Mouad Mezoued The launch of the Riyadh metro in late November 2024 once again highlighted...

Transport for Suburbia: Beyond the Automobile Age (Paul Mees)

Mobile Lives Forum
27 March 2025, by Javier Caletrío Can suburbia avoid car dependence? Can low-density areas enjoy first-rate public...

Geopolitics and Electric Vehicles: The Rise of Climate Protectionism

Mobile Lives Forum
17 February 2025, by Xabier Gangoiti and Graham Parkhurst The electric vehicle (EV) revolution is not just a...

One Way to Fight Rising Food Prices: Public Grocery Stores

The New Republic
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has proposed opening government-owned grocery stores as a solution to...

The Quiet Power of Car-Free Neighborhoods

CityLab
Restricting or banning vehicles in congested city centers pays off with cleaner air and safer streets. We need to...
Centre national de recherche scientifique (CNRS)
Journal supported by the Institut des Sciences Humaines et Sociales (Institute of Human and Social Sciences) of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)

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