Night-time as a strategic referent for an intermediary city: between attractiveness and standardization of the uses

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the nocturnal dimension to the Reims Grand Centre project. It brings out a shift in approach by those involved in urban design, with an increased sensitivity to nocturnal matters. This provides a way of improving user comfort and developing new evening and night-time usages. Nevertheless, this attention to the nocturnal dimension is incomplete, seeking to make places more attractive only to certain parts of the population, leading to various pre-existing usages being displaced or pushed out, thereby increasing social and behavioural normativity.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban projects
• night
• territorial attractiveness
• intermediary city

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Direction des espaces verts (2016), Cahier des clauses techniques et particulières pour le réaménagement des Promenades, Reims, 30 p.

2 Tender submitted by Osty & associés.

3 Interview with project landscape designer, January 9 2020, during a professional workshop.

4 Interview with the director of the department of studies on public spaces of the Grand Reims conducted on July 1 2019.

5 For example, in an article on August 4 2020, the journalist described the promenades as ‘a popular destination, especially for those who do not go on holiday’. Another article on August 9 2020 entitles ‘The water mirror taken by storm’.

6 Interview with the urban planning project manager at the Grand Reims urban planning department on November 29 2019.

7 Interview with the landscaper of the project, on January 9 2020.

8 Interview with the former city councillor in charge of the development of nightlife, on July 16 2019.

9 Interview with the town councillor of the city of Reims in charge of the city-centre on December 9 2019.

10 Notarial database of property in France, 2020, Esri, DeLorme, NAVTEQ, TomTom, Intermap, iPC, USGS, FAO, NPS, NRCAN, GeoBase, Kadaster NL, Ordnance Survey, Esri Japan, METI, Esri China (Hong Kong), and the GIS User Community.

Additional information

Funding

This paper results from fieldwork carried out within the framework of the research programme ‘SMARTNIGHTS. For sustainable and inclusive urban nights’ funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR-18-CE41-0005).