2005 / IV

In the sub-urban municipality of Clichy-sur-Bois, near Paris, a new programme of urban renewal calls for 324 millions Euro.

The emergency in the French sub-urban peripheries - the so-called SLAB-URBS (banlieues in French) - is not a new event.
In 1995 a popular movie, La Haine (the hate), described the riots in a parisian peripheries where three kids fight against the police and the municipality. It created a scandal, but after 10 years the situation is even worse.

The emergency is spread over the entire French territory not by chance. In fact, the 1960s and 70s programmes for Social Housing created the SAME sub-urban disaster all over the country by adopting the same town-planning principles:
bars and towers scattered within huge green areas and connected through motorways to commercial malls.

The situation is the same in the entire old continent.
And the problem is getting worse as architects continue to build the same SLAB-URBS even today as the case of Lisbon is dramatically pointing out.
If the economic situation will get better, maybe riots will be partly avoided. But in the unfortunate case that the economic situation deteriorates, EU citizens must expect an increase of taxation to fix the sub-urban problems.

EU should act before it is too late.

Compact urban neighborhoods are today possible.
A true ecological alternative to the slab-urbanization of EU can be achieved by promoting the principles of mixed-use within the eficient pattern of the traditional European City: streets, blocks and plazas.
It will save both millions of hectars of countryside and billions of Euro.

From "euro-urb@yahoogroups.com" FORUM:

"This is what is happen in the slab urbs of Paris.
The slab urbs are the european sprawl, the illness of the
european city. The slab urbs are one of the most difficult
social and cultural problems. The social desaster in the
slab urbs is our hurrican ...not only in Paris.
But we cannot only say: demolish it!"
H.K.

"The argument is a very dangerous one, as we all know
it is not ONLY building types that are the problem"
D.P.

"Is it the buildings, or is it the people? Neither.
It is a system, comprised of people, buildings, employment
(or lack thereof), and many other factors.
I think we do need to talk intelligently about the role the buildings play in that system."
M.M.

What is happening in the periphery of Paris, NOT in the city, has happened since 15-20 years.
If you watch the French movie "La Haine" (The Hate), 1994, you will find exactly the same situation.
1994, that is 11 years ago! The problem is simple. Modernist periphery have proved not to work.
They are the results of experimentations, theories, ideologies of another century.
Another society. Another world.
They have failed as well as all the other ideologies of the 20th century. As Communism, as Fascism, as National Socialism.

Traditional urbanism doesn't prevent from poverty or exclusion, but Modernist Periphery are a guaranty that poverty and exclusion grow. It is a simple evidence of the reality.

Then, we can always admire elegant modernist buildings, love the sea-view from a Modernist tower in Miami Beach, but it is about time that architects, and politicians, do recognize that it is time to go further.
As politicians did in politics. Nobody talks today of Communism, Fascism, and National Socialism. Fortunately the vast majority of both Left and Right agree on Democracy. Let's learn from experience and provide people with a city where citizens can live, walk, shop, and make love. The poor as well as the rich.
As they do in Paris (2,2 millions) where black, Asian, African live. And do not burn cars and shops.
Not yet.

Today, when the contemporary society is experiencing a process of globalization and European Union is realizing the extension of its boundaries, the debate on the city and the regional dimension becomes central.
Two are the possible scenarios:
- the conventional way: a complete planetary uniformity of behaviours, economies lifestyles and urban environments dominated by a reduces number of industrian and tertiary conglomerates, creating a sub-urban environment characterized by the system - sckyscrapers, highways, suburbs (towers and bars): the same landscape, all over the world, as our modernist peripheries;
- eco-urban way: a globalization developed through enhancing regional characters, natural and urban environments, food, culture, habits, and lifestyles, construction techniques, urban and architectural types in MIXED-USE neighborhoods.

P E R I P H E R Y

Introduction - The first MIU congress will focus on two issues. The first is: understanding and describing the various dimensions of the necessity for an urban renaissance in Israel, and the second is a discussion of ways to bring about this renaissance, according to the principles of Merhav - Movement for Israeli Urbanism.
Israel, is a dense and urbanized country, and is likely to grow more so in the coming decades. However, recent policies and the growing role of market forces, have created unsustainable development patterns in increasing sub-urbanization and sprawl of housing, employment and commercial centers. The existing urban fabric is eroded through disinvestment in upgrading and renewal, and by lack of attention to public space due to an exaggerated importance given to the car. Moreover, since much of Israel's existing urban fabric was constructed using modern city planning methods, which have failed throughout the world to produce successful urban environments - the renovation of neighborhoods and cities, has to transform these housing projects and single use neighborhoods into vibrant urban quarters. Finally, the growing inequality within society is reflected also in the flight of the middle class from older cities, or in its concentration in particular neighborhoods, while the rest of the city is allowed to deteriorate. As the old housing stock ages and deteriorates, and is not being replaced, affordable housing in the central areas of cities becomes scarce, thus pushing families in the search for housing ever farther from the center of the metropolitan areas.Two state wide planning efforts, Israel 2020, and subsequently the National General Plan 35, pointed out that in future decades a doubling of existing built fabric will be needed to satisfy the needs of a growing population and increasing prosperity. What will be the shape of this growth? Will it be a continuance of existing patterns of development: fragmented enclaves, automobile based, consuming evermore larger quantities of land, and fragmenting and destroying the last areas of agricultural and open spaces of the dense coastal plain? Or will it be a smarter, more urbane and civic development, based on public transit accessibility to homes and jobs, on dense and yet human scale development, that will strengthen existing cities and protect and enhance important open spaces and ecological areas?The Congress is inclusive. It is directed toward all those interested and concerned with Urbanism in Israel including:
- Political leaders
- Developers
- Business leaders
- Private sector
- Professionals in the fields of city planning and design including city planners, architects, traffic engineers, sociologists, historians, economists, political scientists and other urban professions
- Non-profit organizations and citizens who are concerned about the future of their towns and neighborhoods

Purpose and Goals of the CongressThe goals of the congress are as follows:
· To increase awareness in the professional and academic community, and political decision makers and the lay public of the urban crisis facing Israeli cities and towns and to clarify its nature and extent
· To elaborate and explain principles of urbanism, that can once again create lively, interesting, viable and pleasant urban environments
· To discuss methods and techniques for an urban renaissance in Israel
· To create partnerships with the city of Beer-Sheva, Ben-Gurion University, and other relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations for an urban renaissance agenda in Beer-Sheva
· To widen and diversify the membership of Merhav - Movement for Israeli Urbanism, and strengthen the commitment to its charter among members.Within the congress we intend to engage in two activities: an urban design charette, on important projects for Beer-Sheva's city core; a conference that will serve as an opening and theoretical background to the charrette.
The aim of the charette, is to employ for the first time in Israel a participative planning method, that has been used extensively in urban projects in the US and Europe. This method brings to the table all the interested parties in order to develop together a vision of the proposed project, and agree on its principles. The result can than serve as a basis for an agreed plan, and project, which will meet less resistance and involve the community in its further development and growth. The charette addresses all the goals, and in particular the goal of increased awareness of the importance of urbanism among local political decision makers and lay public.
The congress aims to place the ideas of MIU in a wider international movement of New Urbanism, Smart Growth and Sustainable Development. It will bring to Israel keynote speakers from the forefront of this movement, to speak about their experiences of implementing and promoting these ideas in other cities of the world. It also brings together Israeli practitioners, to share their experiences, discuss recurring problems and their solutions, and draw strength from their successes.
For our guests from abroad we will arrange a post-conference program which will include visits to the Unit of Desert Architecture and Planning in Sde-Boker, Jerusalem, with explanation and discussion of recent planning efforts and challenges for the city, Modiin, the flagship new town designed by Moshe Safdie and Associates, and Tel-Aviv who recently won recognition of its center as a UNESCO monument of humanity. This program will take place on December 13-16.

For more details visit: http://www.miu.org.il/ and MIU-Conference-Page

"La Haine"

Directed by:
Mathieu Kassovitz
France, 1995

Cast:
Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé,
Said Taghmaoul

Drama

Chronicle of one day and one night in a peripheral suburbs of Paris

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