Studies for the Master Plan Lyon 2010

Master Plan Lyon 2010

Lyon 1992-2010. Strategies and urban projects for the contemporary city

by Elena Marchigiani

• Introduction
• Planning tools
• The revitalisation of public spaces in the historical centre and in suburban housing districts
• The enhancement of urban landscape
• Poles of urban and economic development
• Places of mobility
• Bibliography and links

Introduction

The process of urban renewal which has taken place in Lyon in the last ten years can be assumed as exemplary of a more general transformation in planning instruments occurred in Europe since the eighties. A transformation which can be ascribed both to profound mutations in the context and to the extension of contemporary cities to larger metropolitan areas, and to a more general disciplinary reflection on planning and project tools.

Lyon policy is extremely articulated in scales of action: from the construction of a strategy for the development of the metropolitan area (the Master plan, Schéma directeur), to the arrangement of urban plan and projects for specific parts of the city.

The deep integration of all these levels constitutes a peculiarity of the Lyon case. Each project assumes a particular value because it is part of a more general structure. A structure which re-organises the whole metropolis by drawing a new framework of thematic planning systems: the revitalisation of public spaces in the centre and in suburban housing districts; the enhancement of urban landscape, parks and historical parts of the city; the creation of new poles of urban and economic development; the re-interpretation of the places of mobility and the realisation of a new public transport and road network.

In order to guarantee the functioning of such a complex apparatus of planning instruments and strategies an overall change has taken place inside the administration services. The Communauté urbaine du Grand Lyon and the Agence d’urbanisme have promoted a process of coordination and control of the quality of projects and of monitoring of the results, through the construction of a continuous dialogue with the numerous actors and committees involved in each operation.