Traditional concrete shopping areas could disappear in the coming years. What is being imagined to replace them is very ambitious.
Commercial areas on the outskirts of cities have been part of the landscape since the 1970s and have continued to expand ever since. These places of consumption have also contributed to the decline of city centers which have gradually lost competitiveness. Completely concreted with department stores and vast parking lots and dotted with giant advertising panels, these areas concentrate 72% of the spending made by the French in stores, as indicated in an article from Boursorama.
These spaces, considered “ugly” by many French people, could be subject to transformation in the coming years. Indeed, in September 2023, Christophe Béchu, Minister of Ecology, unveiled a renovation plan intended to put an end to this “ugly France”. The plan concerns more than 1,500 commercial zones from the 1960s and has a budget of 24 million euros.
Beyond their unwelcoming appearance, these spaces are no longer in accordance with current ecological concerns; many buildings have now become “energy sieves”. The project consists of bringing nature, industry and housing to these areas located at the entrance or on the edge of cities. Questioned by Boursorama, the president of the Order of French Architects, Christine Leconte, explains that it is a question of “repairing these poorly designed spaces” in order to “bring the city to where there is none”. Concretely, it involves creating “streets, squares, places to walk, public facilities and housing”.
Of the first 1,500 sites concerned, more than a hundred applications were submitted to redevelop these industrial spaces. According to Boursorama, around twenty winners should be designated by the government soon. A sum of 150,000 euros will be available for each project. Three different types of projects were established. In addition to commercial areas where the challenge is to revitalize and introduce housing and green spaces, in areas in decline the goal is to group together businesses and reconvert abandoned spaces. In rural areas the aim is to develop the presence of both shops and industry.
Among the developments planned in the renovation projects, the shape of the buildings could be completely reworked. Questioned by Boursorama, Arnaud Gasnier, professor of planning and urban planning at the University of Le Mans, believes that with the lack of space “we will have to create new urban models, undoubtedly more vertical”. But if buildings should increase in height, this should not prevent the presence of large advertising panels.
These initiatives nevertheless face a series of challenges, particularly concerning the ambition to regreen commercial areas. Indeed, “the soils are ruined by thirty years of parking” as Michel Jacod, member of the France nature environment association, reminds Boursorama. The latter also believes that projects to develop housing in the entrances to cities must be accompanied by the development of public transport. A job that does not concern architects. These renovation works could therefore ultimately modify not only the urban landscape but also reshape the dynamics of cities.