Discussions on Urban Form in the French Experience of urban Renewal of Mass Housing Estates

Abstract

To date, the strategies for renewal, regeneration, or retrofitting of mass housing estates carried out in Spain tend not to question their urban form. However, the planned nature of the housing estates and the greater amount of open space represent a great opportunity for the promotion of greater urban quality. The sectoral nature of most of the actions carried out, by ignoring this dimension, has not allowed to optimise the morphological potential in the urban regeneration of housing estates. In contrast, there are more advanced European experiences whose study could help to improve regeneration strategies in our country. Among all of them, the renewal of French housing estates has been an important laboratory for the study of morphological transformations. Beyond the particularities of the context and the limitations of the French experience, the aim of this paper is to contrast the extent to which the transformation of the open spaces of some examples of regeneration of French housing estates has succeeded in promoting greater urban quality. To this end, the research applies the UR-Hesp diagnosis methodology to a number of cases in the Île-de-France region. Its application allows reflecting on the advantages of the mixed urban-building French approach, without ignoring the recommendations that are beginning to emerge from fields such as sociology when evaluating the first experiences. Learning from the successes and failures of an international experience could have great benefits for future integrated urban regeneration strategies in our country.