COST C10

A- BACKGROUND

Metropolisation : a world phenomenon.

"Cities and urban agglomerations are the centre of social, cultural and economic life for 80% of Europe's citizens." These European agglomerations are made up of a large variety of districts used on a regular basis: old and densely built-up centres; new housing districts comprising both blocks of flats and individual houses; old, outlying towns; industrial zones; large shopping centres; leisure parks and recreation centres; multi-screen cinemas... All these elements are constituent parts of today's new urban areas. This "metropolisation" takes many forms, according to each country, the age of its urbanisation, its culture, and its land-use policies. Throughout, however, it can be seen that these urban groupings are larger and more populated than in the last century, and that they constitute the new framework of the day-to-day lives of inhabitants and businesses. Writers such as Saskia Sassen (1996) or Pierre Veltz (1996) well describe how much the globalisation of the economy has been at the root of these fundamental transformations. Others, such as François Ascher, highlight the more widespread ability to achieve mobility to explain the fundamental transformation of our territories. Finally, authors such as Cynthia Ghorra Gobin underline the attractions, for large parts of the population and businesses, of low density areas close to nature.

Conurbations are scattered and splintered.

According to the towns and the countries they are in, these urban areas are more or less populated, dense, or polarised. They nonetheless have common characteristics: sprawl of old agglomerations over dozens of kilometres; organisation of major urbanisation around large communication routes; lowering of urban densities; fragmented, no longer continuous urban fabric, alternating built-up zones and large open areas of wooded or agricultural land; limits between town and country that have become vague; appearance of new polarisations on the outskirts, sometimes based on old suburban towns that have become absorbed into the larger conurbation, or are made up around shopping centres, or transport hubs, etc.

The majority of Europeans lives on the outskirts, this is also where businesses have been set up : many "forces" and "values" sustain this metropolisation.

It is clear that most Europeans do not live in the town centre. The Paris region has a population of 10 million, whereas only 2 million live in Paris itself. On the whole the British have a strong anti-urban bias and prefer to live away from the center of the city, in the country side, in the pursuit of the "rural idyll". In Finland, Alvar Aalto's architecture is typical of this desire of man to live close to nature: his buildings are inserted into the forest, which "dialogues" with the town. How can one describe the Ruhr (Thomas Sieverts work on the "Zwischenstadt") or the Randstatt, other than as dispersed urbanisations, recomposed around old country towns, nature or even new centralities. Everywhere in Europe, town centres are emptying and regaining new roles in relation to the whole range of urban areas. At the same time, businesses, and other economic activities ( warehousing and distribution centres, offices, industrial units,...) have developed mainly in these peripheral areas. Other than lower land costs, and the advantages of good accessibility along major circulations, they enjoy, as is often mentioned in their brochures, being in an agreable, green environment. It can be seen that there are many "forces" and "values" which sustain the constant evolution of these areas.

Certain of these outskirts pose undeniable problems.

If a large majority of the population profits from mobility, in order to live a rich life, that is varied, chosen, and close to nature, this form of urbanisation also gives rise to a certain number of problems. Large public housing estates are usually located in these areas and concentrate numerous handicaps linked to our society: unemployment, exclusion, etc. The generalised assumption of personal mobility, in addition to the problems linked to the sustainable town, leaves by the wayside all those whom for one reason or another are not in a position to drive a vehicle. The long distances to be travelled daily are, for some, a loss of time and money which detracts from the quality of life. These problem housing estates, places of relegation, have been very widely studied and have given rise to numerous public policies in every country in Europe. But, these relegated areas, which, without doubt, raise serious problems, have concentrated all eyes and all research on them.

But most of the outskirts are the result of number of "forces" and "values". They have been subject to very limited study, and are not very known.

It should then be noted that only 5% to 10% of the outskirts are affected by these serious problems. The rest, which we will call here, "common outskirts", are vast residential, industrial, commercial, and leisure activity areas, and also countryside which are generally appreciated by users and businesses. These areas are the result of four separate processes : the planning process (including planners and politicians), the property development process (including property developers, land owners, agents), the economic activity process (commercial and industrial), and the consumers behaviour and patterns of consumption (housing choice, leisure activities, life styles,...).
It is suggested, therefore, that all the logics connected with these four types of protagonists are worth taking into account when making projects in these "common outskirts". It is essential to understand the "forces and values" of all these actors if one wants to work efficiently in urban projects. And then, it must be mentioned that very few researches exist on this subject.

How can physical projects be decided, and these areas organised geographically, if civil engineers have no knowledge of these "forces and values"? new civil engineers and town-planners tools and know-how have to be found.

In many countries, attempts to master these scattered areas have met with failure, or semi-failure. Perhaps these attempts have failed, precisely, because of forces and values that have not been sufficiently taken into account.
The conviction, therefore, is that in order, for civil engineers, to achieve efficient and realistic projects on the structures and urban forms of these areas, on the equipments that are suitable for creation, on the transport hubs and systems which would be coherent with these urban structures, they have to be fully aware of these "forces and values". Civil engineers have contributed, in a large part, in the constitution of these splitered areas (large infrastructures, urban ruptures,...) : now, these areas pose new and of a different scale problems, and new responses have to be found : how to connect all the parts of this desagregated agglomeration, how to manage the multimodal transport system, how to conceive the transport nodes... But the answer can not be found only by the technique :
How can the geography of the town of tomorrow be organised, if one is not aware of the major economic, social and environmental forces of which it will be made? How can urban projects be designed that will be coherent with landscapes on a large scale into which they must integrate, without having an analysis of the new geography of these areas? How can one create harmonious projects with low density and with nature, if one does not have a deep understanding of residents' and businesses' demands? How can one draw the transport network, the main "hub-stations" and all the secondary network if one does not have a deep knowledge of the interests of the economic actors and the way of life of the habitants?

B - OBJECTIVES

The main objective of this action is to identify and recognize the specificities, forces and values of European "common outskirts". A very good knowledge of them is necessary for elected representatives, urban civil engineers (planners and architects), to have the basis to design and propose realistic physical projects and structurations, shapes and transformations of these areas, that would then be coherent with political ambitions, business logistics, the notions of quality called for by the resident population and with respect with a sustainable development.

PHASE I

1- Recognition of the forces and values of European "common outskirts".
Whereas the majority of the European population lives in these suburban territories, whereas the majority of entreprises want to set up in these areas, these areas are rarely considered by research and policy making and their particular qualities and faults not sufficiently recognised. A first objective is thus to shed light on the "forces and values" which are inherent in these areas. It is also a question of better understanding in what respect our different outskirts have European specificities.

2- Identification of realistic public policies for the physical structuration of the European outskirts, pinpointing renovated basis for drawing urban projects.
Analysis of these areas will light on both qualities and faults. The object of all public policies is to establish objectives in order to regulate all the forces that are operating in these sectors. Highlighting these objectives (organisation of the main structures of the town : archipelago town or/and town with urban continuities ; right articulation between town and nature ; mixity on the right scale ; a realistic approach to different urban densities and morphologies in their relations to nature ; but also improvement of environmental quality ; definition of what can be sustainable development in these areas, etc.), will contribute to the creation of European policies for the geographical structuration and physical organisation of urban outskirts with respect to our cultural traditions and in coherence with a sustainable development. Then, new basis for drawing urban projects will be deducted from these new points of view.

PHASE II : Final long term objective for a possible future extension of the action.

Finding methods of planning and urban design suitable for European outskirts.
A large proportion of urban projects over the coming years will be in these areas, in parallel with actions to enhance the value of historic centres. Planning procedures and thinking which evolved from the historic town are not suitable for such areas, that lack density, are fragmented, spread out, and of another scale. New methods for planning and urban design need to be found, that are adapted to this sort of space, not necessarily in order to reincorporate them into a town centre, or dense type of urbanisation, but in respecting the main factors that mould their quality and in coherence with the criteria of sustenability.

C - SCIENTIFIC CONTENT OF THE ACTION

Many European countries already have some research groups studying the outskirts. Moreover, some countries have undertaken projects on these territories, that take into account their specificities. It is these researchers as well as these civil ingineers and local decision-makers who will, in different ways, be incorporated into the proposed activities. The interest of undertaking this COST Action lies in the capacity the group will have to pool a variety of experiences, each previously unknown to the other; and, comparing approaches and results, produce a cross-fertilisation between all the members of the group, and thus between European scientific communities. The work of the first phase is organised in four stages:

PHASE I : STAGE I

This stage consists of bringing together the previous research from different European countries (objective 1). The following themes will be tackled:

analysis of the sites' history and the different economic, social, administrative, and political forces which have contributed to their formation and which are contributing to their present evolution;
analysis of outskirts, cut by large infrastructures ; what are the effects on the different areas, analysis of different kind of possible links between the places. How can the transport system minimise the effects?
analysis of territorial structures: What makes an urban centre or pole, what are the functions for different districts or places? What are of a complementary nature, what are the systemic effects of relations between different places? What are the relationships with transport networks?
pinpointing urban life-styles in these localities and the inhabitants' urban practices; pinpointing economical logics.
analysis of urban and architectural forms: fragmentation, "digital" space, the place of nature and urban voids.

This first stage will enable the:

setting-up of a bibliography on the themes that have been mentioned above;
compilation of a common vocabulary;
checking-off the pertinent projects in these areas;
presentation of the position(s) of each country on the subject;
identification of a certain number of concepts as used by the different parties involved.

This first stage will be carried out on the basis of the analysis of a certain number of characteristic urban situations on the outskirts. In each case, local researchers and local urban civil engineers will speak about their works. Territories such as the Ruhr, the agglomeration of Aix en Provence-Marseille, the sprawl of many little towns in the Poitou region and in the south of London... but also main civil engineering projects in these areas will be analysed. It will result in an initial identification of the "forces and values" at work for making these projects , and in the drawing up of an analytical table for use in stage II.
It will enable progress to be made on the question of the identity of European outskirts (objective 1).

PHASE I : STAGE II

In this stage, members of the group will undertake an in-depth analysis of several cases of planning and urban projects in Europe, using the table drawn up at the end of the first stage. This table must be added to and improved during the following stages. The work will be centred on the analysis of recent projects or those which are in the process of elaboration.
The cases will be investigated in situ in such a way as to be able to question the different actors dealing with the project: planners, engineers, architects, landscape designers, economic operators, local decision-makers.

The work will be mainly centred on the identification of concepts which are at the basis of the production of projects in the "common urban outskirts". Through analysis of local projects, their process of elaboration, the identification of reasons for which one or another position has been taken, or can be highlighted, in another way than in the first stage, the group will pinpoint the particularities of the outskirts taken into account in the projects (objective I), and the major objectives fixed by the public authorities (objective II). Cases such as the "CentrO" in Oberhausen in the Ruhr (new 110 000 m² shopping centre, with incorporated leisure centre); the positioning of the railway station in Jönköping in Sweden (should the new station be in the historic centre, or on the outskirts?); the new master plan for Lorient (which intends to give a large part over to "leisure" functions in its proposals for the physical restructuration of the conurbation) are some examples which could be analysed.

In order that each of these fields of work be treated efficiently, two working groups are to be formed. The first, (objective I) will be based mainly in the field of sociology, geography and history of towns, in their relationships with structuration and physical projects. The second will deal with economics and political sciences (objective II). In both groups will be mixed researchers and urban civil engineers so that all ideas are discussed and evaluated through a feasability point of view.

A summary, and an intermediate evaluation, will be conducted at the end of the second stage, which will enable a collection and an overview analysis of results of the first two stages. This will permit the group to validate the first set of results obtained by the approach, and to identify the areas requiring further studies in subsequent stages. An international seminar will enable wider exchanges to be made on the subject. A first report will present the international commented bibliography illustrated by some cases studied and analysed by the group.

PHASE I : STAGE III

This stage will enable the fields already tackled to be dealt with in greater depth, and to fill in any missing areas noticed in the intermediate evaluation. In particular, during this stage, the group will appreciate how all the forces and values identified in the precedent stages deal with the factors of sustenability (objective 2) .
International comparisons will be too, at the centre of the approach : comparisons to find those values which are common to all the European countries ; to deal with specificities, country by country, while understanding the reasons ; comparisons with the United States of America in particular, to observe, here as well, the specificities of European outskirts. Bibliographic analysis, interviews with European experts on the American town, and with American scholars who are visiting Europe will also be organised.

The two thematic groups will continue to work, and study their theme in greater depth. The cases that are studied in this stage will be chosen according to whether they will enable deeper study of a particular specificity that has been singled out during stage II.

PHASE I : STAGE IV

This stage will be primarily a phase of collective summing-up.
Each working group will present its analysis and its own résumé to the whole group. On the basis of this material, the group will carry out its work of collective summing-up, in order to respond to the objectives of the research :

to know more about the areas that constitute the "common outskirts" in Europe, their "forces and values",
to find out ways of being compatible with sustainable development,
to identify public policies and realistic projects for these "common outskirts".

This summary will be directed at the different local authorities, in order to assist them in their decisions on local policies and projects for "common outskirts" as well as local urban engeneers. Specific recommendations will be made concerning training in specialised establishments, both in terms of initial training and skill enhancement. A closing conference will enable the knowledge acquired from this action to be shared with a wide public. A second report will present all the cases which had been studied during the second and third stages ; a final report will show the main results of the action and will propose recommandations for the local autorithies, for local experts and for further axes of research.

PHASE II:

After four years of work, all the necessary concepts and policies for structuring the European outskirts and to draw adequate projects will be pinpointed and expressed. It will be then time to decide the eventualy prolongation of this action . The Phase II would be more focused on the design and urban shapes according with these low density town, with these from an other scale territories and with all criteria pointed out in the first phase. New methods of planning and urban design have to be invented. The main method for the group would be to analyse some particular European projects which take into account all these new factors : new boulevards, or cycling networks, big scale infrastructures in relation with the large landscape, organisation of new urban hubs, new role of the voids in the urban structure,... Main criteria for designing would be specified by comparing some European projects and methods.

D - TIMETABLE

The project will take place over a four-year period.

E - ORGANISATION

Organisation of the work will be based around:

four meetings a year,

a management committee : During the aforementioned four stages, the management committee will undertake the double role of operational and scientific direction of the process. The working method provides for the case studies and testimonies to take place in the plenary sessions, the working groups separating afterwards to undertake in-depth study of their own sets of problems,

two thematic groups working separately, but exchanging information at each plenary session,

a junior expert who will follow the work of the plenary sessions, participate on an ad hoc basis, in the work of the different groups, and compile reports. He or she will have the role of catalyst to the debat, organise, step by step the achievements and questions of the group, and by sending these to all the members of the group. This method will enable a thesaurisation and a maximisation of the value of the groups' work,

communication and coordination with the activities of relevant international comittees will take place, espacialy with programmes and projects such as European Union Framework Programmme 5 ( in particular the possible key action "the city of tomorrow and the cultural heritage"), the Eurocities network, the OECD Group on Urban Affairs and the European Foundation for Improvement of Living and Working Conditions will continuosly be carried out by the Management Comittee of the Action.

F - DISSEMINATION PLAN.

As mentioned in the previous chapters, five kinds of methods will be employed for the dissemination of the results:

The Action in itself is an important means of dissemination : in fact, as said in the background, many isolated teams work on these new subject and it will be an important progress to stimulate, through this new action, a new european network about the outskirts, their specificities and the right ways to have physical interventions on them.

Each study case in different countries of Europe will be an opportunity to have a discussion between the COST group and local teams and autorities ; it is a second way to produce dissemination of this new research field.

During the four years of the Action, the Managment Comittee will have relations with other international comittees : it will be a good occasion to share the progresses of all these actions.

The international seminar and the final conference will attract both researchers and local authorities: elected people, planners, ingeneers, social scientists,... involved in the physical production of our cities. It will be the main opportunity for dissemination.

The COST group will write three reports : one about a commented European bibliography, the second in which most interesting cases of European outskirts will be analysed and third, a synthesis of all the work done, concepts, recommandations, ways of possible actions : it is the most long term action about dissemination.

E - ECONOMIC DIMENSION OF THE ACTION

The following COST countries have actively participated in the preparation of the action or otherwise indicated their interest : Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden.

The costs include the national costs paid by the countries participating in the action (and include, for one of them, the cost of the junior expert), and the coordination costs paid by the commission.

The following cost estimate is based on informations available during the planning of the action. The overall cost of the activities to be carried out under the action is roughly ECU 5,4 million in 1998 prices (including that part funded by the Commission). This estimation includes participation by nine countries each bearing an average cost of ECU 0.6 million.

Any departure from the above-mentioned assumption of participating countries will change the total cost accordingly.

Proposal drawn up by Geneviève DUBOIS-TAINE, Plan Urbanisme Construction et Architecture, France. April, June, August 1998.

For further details E-Mail: COST_C10