https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3043-4446
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ABSTRACT
This article studies the low-cost strategy associated with the provision of temporary spaces for start-up companies in the ‘Quartier de la Création’, a project within the large regeneration scheme: Ile de Nantes. The method, ‘transitory urbanism’, combines urban redevelopment and economic development strategies. We analyse the factors enabling the implementation of this method in practice. We argue that this method illustrates a regeneration strategy – with its limits – slightly different from the three types listed in typology on brownfield regeneration strategies. As ‘transitory urbanism’ happens within a top-down regeneration process, our findings complement the existing literature on planning contexts related to ‘Cultural Brownfields’ in Europe and specifically on ‘transitory urbanism’ as a method. The data collection is based on semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in the regeneration process as well as quantitative data collected on the number of jobs in temporary spaces for creative industries. Our main findings is that ‘transitory urbanism’ relies on three main conditions: (1) The SPL status of the redevelopment agency SAMOA; (2) The ‘Precarious Occupation Agreement’; (3) A combination of financing mechanisms that we explain in detail.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Culture is seen as driver for the transformation of the city and to enhance the image of Nantes tarnished by industrial decline from the late 1980s. Culture is really integrated in urban planning strategies and regeneration since the early 1990s and the Ile de Nantes project is a good illustration of this strategy.
2 A project within the large Ile de Nantes regeneration project.
3 The term urban centrality relates to a centrality with an economic dimension but also a symbolic dimension according to our interviews.
4 In the official documents the French term used is ‘Industries Culturelles et Créatives’ (ICCs).
5 The French use the term of ‘ecosystème créatif’
6 The Island consists of 7 parts when referring to the original structure of different islands, where each island had a specific program, parceling and water management that still determines the current configuration of the neighborhoods.
7 ZAC Beaulieu started in 1963.
8 There will be various informal occupations and a foreshadowing of future projects with the festival “les Allumés”, a cultural event of the 1990s., (interview 3).
9 This choice not to specialize and to leave the program open is a strong component of the project at its beginnings: “it was really the genesis of the project, we did not make a cluster of things, we did not make neighborhoods. business, no station area, no how everyone was doing ”(Interview 1)
10 The ZAC de la Madeleine with the transformation of the Quai Baco included the ‘Lieu Unique’ but encompassing a larger territory. Zac de la Madeleine was the prototype for the future ‘Quartier de la Creation’.
11 The Karting offers 1200 m2 for start-up companies and proposes spaces that are flexible in size: from 12 to 96 m2. It has 50 companies and represents approximately 150 jobs. It was completed in January 2012.
12 La Centrale is a 1400 m2 building offering 120 offices and common spaces designed for the business from the multimedia and transmedia sectors. It was completed in 2016.
13 Initially, Halles 1&2 were for temporary uses but from 2021 it will be the space for Creative Factory.
14 Creative Factory will have its space since 2023 in Halles 1 and 2.
15 The French term is ‘Aménagement urbain’, this mission is done through a ‘concession d’aménagement’.
16 The French term is ‘Développement économique’ and this mission is done through a ‘Délégation de Service Public’ (DSP).
17 12 sub-sectors are identified with a distinction between creative and cultural.
18 Olivier Caro, former project manager of the creation district, sums up the process as follows: “we made a choice, an intellectual choice that was considered, which was to say 'I don't want to choose between the established and the non-established. (…). It's making ends meet. You have the informal environments of creation, and then at the same time, and instituted things, and much more usual in the process of project programming” (Interview 7).
19 The Plan-Guide highlights the idea of not imposing a fixed regeneration program: the project can evolve as it is progressing.
20 Nantes is a left-wing city (‘socialiste’) since 1989.
21 The program included the cities of Nantes, Athens, Cluj-Napoca, Ostrava, Poznan, Riga, Helsinki, Bremen and Amersfoort.
22 The testing of urban experimentations such are ‘Ilotopia’ (2017–1018) included the participation of residents, but these experimentations led by SAMOA were not about the temporary use of spaces for CCIs.
23 It is not all the Ile de Nantes project that is regenerated within a ZAC, but this was the case for the ‘Quartier de la Création’.