New town

As Ville nouvelle ( "new city " ) in the broader sense is called in French, each with planning, political will within a shorter time realized city's founding, in the sense of the German term plan city. In a narrower sense the term refers to a program of new towns, which was developed in France in the mid 1960s. As an example of the British New Towns around London served. The plan was that the Villes Nouvelles should be independent of Paris, but the project failed in part.

History of the Paris Villes Nouvelles

At the beginning of the reign of Charles de Gaulle as president of the French Fifth Republic, there were demographic predictions for the Paris region ROCHE a population growth of about 8 million to 14 to 16 million people by the year 2000. De Gaulle, a representative economic and urbanistic planification then commissioned his colleague Paul Delouvrier as General Agent, create a policy plan for the Paris region, which should solve this problem by decentralization. They wanted to get the problem of unplanned growth in the manner of an oil spot in the handle, but probably also an increase in the power of the majority left mayor, called the Banlieue rouge on the edge of the small administrative Paris intra muros, hintan hold. After extensive discussions, which had also provided about the proposal of a second Paris east of the traditional capital, in 1965 a policy plan was published, the first provided for each 500,000 inhabitants, eight located around 30 km from the capital city villes nouvelles with in the final. Of these, five were subsequently realized, namely, Cergy- Pontoise, Marne -la -Vallee, Melun- Sénart, Evry, Saint- Quentin -en- Yvelines.

While the previous occupation of Paris surrounding area concentrated on the river valleys, the Villes Nouvelles were usually populated hardly, agriculturally used ridge situated. Resistances of the local population have been overcome by expropriation. We also tried the mistake of the New Towns to avoid that would have been too far away from the capital and planned too small, no really bustling cities ( as Paul Delouvrier in a speech of 6 January 1966 ).

As a result, it did not come to the projected 1960 explosive population growth in the Paris region, which slowed the development of the Villes Nouvelles. Also, some concepts of urban planning changed. Was the original plan of the Paris satellite cities aligned in the sense of clear functional and Verkehrsentmischung according to the guidelines of the Charter of Athens, soon came the need for mixed uses and the best access to public transport via RER into the foreground. Also soon became apparent that the traditional social - West Ostgefälle aired in Greater Paris on the Villes Nouvelles. In the 1970s and 1980s, the need for more interesting architectural design and increased citizen participation, which resulted in the Villes Nouvelles subsequently lead to the establishment of numerous post-modern buildings with landmark character arose ( for example, by the architect Ricardo Bofill and Manolo Nuñez ). This popular and commercial orientation was criticized by supporters of modern art, but is probably one factor in the success of urban experiment Ville nouvelle.

Examples outside Paris

More Villes nouvelles in France:

• Environment Lille Villeneuve d'Ascq
• Environment Lyon: Isle d' Abeau
• Environment Marseille: Rives de l' Etang de Berre
• Environment Rouen Val de Reuil

Influence on Belgium

The took place in the 1970s, construction of the university town of Louvain- la -Neuve, after separation of the Catholic University of Leuven in a French-speaking and Dutch-speaking part can also be regarded as a founding Ville nouvelle.