Cultural brownfields in European cities: a new mainstream object for cultural and urban policies

Abstract

This paper develops the concept of ‘cultural brownfields’ and discusses how organic cultural projects developed in derelict sites have been progressively included in mainstream cultural and urban planning strategies and policies over the last 10 years. To do so the paper assesses the transformation of three mature cultural brownfields in Berlin, Marseille and Lausanne and their distinctive internal and external dynamics. It develops a typology of cultural brownfields which stresses the diverse nature of these spaces and their differential role in cultural and urban planning policies. The paper concludes by highlighting a series of policy lessons for urban planning and cultural strategies.

Keywords:

• cultural brownfields
• cultural policies
• urban planning
• Berlin
• Marseille
• Lausanne

Notes

1. See for example in America (particularly New York) (Zukin 1982, 1995, Ley 1996), Germany (Kunzmann 2004, Ebert and Kunzmann, 2007, Manske 2007), France (Raffin 2000, 2007, Gravari-Barbas 2004, Lextrait and Kahn 2005, Shaw 2005, Vivant 2006, 2009), Great Britain (Attfield 1997, Green 1999, Ambrosino 2007, Ambrosino and Andres 2007, Pratt 2009), Switzerland (Raffin 2002, Weckerle et al. 2008) or Holland (Bruin and Maso 1982, Draaisma 2003, Shaw 2005).

2. Interview Andres, July 2006.

3. Interview Grésillon, June 2008.

4. Interview Grésillon, May 2004.

5. Senate Department of Urban Development: http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/bauen/grosse_projekte/en/tacgeles.shtml (Accessed May 2003).

6. Interview Andres, April 2006.

7. Interview Andres, April 2007.

8. Interview Andres, February 2007.

9. Interview Andres, January 2007.

10. Interview Andres, February 2006.

11. Interview Andres, June 2006.

12. Interview Andres; December 2010.

13. Interview Andres, April 2006 with P. Foulquié and in July 2006 with the initiator of the Subsistances, D, Trouxe.

14. This actually poses a new question which is not developed in the paper due to word constraints: what are the new sites and spaces available for artists to settle in a informal and organic way?