Nanterre

The area of Nanterre is divided into major urban sections that have progressively split the commune into districts with strong identities.

Nanterre is developing a project for the Town, the objective of which is to strike a balance between local and metropolitan ambition. If current relations with the State are raising questions about this ambition, this only confirms the need to strengthen the ways of mobilising the people of Nanterre more to highlight Nanterre’s requirements more effectively.

These days it’s a matter of allowing the people of Nanterre to take over the town and in future years to go beyond the logic of the districts, obliged to withdraw to their particularities, in particular due to infrastructures that are difficult to cross and urban policies that give each territory a particular role.

Nowadays, these challenges are translated by several components of the town’s project:

· Turning the town centre into a place that can be shared by all the people of Nanterre

· Providing more places full of commercial activities in the districts and concentrating them in a single place: the Coeur de Quartier Université

· Creating a new shared space around the Nanterre Université station

· Creating a new recreational space: les Terrasses, the entertainment programme of which is currently being considered.

· Significantly maintaining the diversity of areas of activity so that employment adapts to local needs

· Making choices about sustainable development so that everyone can easily reach these new places (pedestrians, bicycles, in particular) and where the quality of the environment is good. Feeling good in the Town is a prerequisite for its appropriation.

A main challenge brought about by the current city project concerns its complexity and size: how can we make it accessible and comprehensible for most people so that every citizen can be involved in its design and implementation? How can we bring it up-to-date for the citizens and the Town?

Another challenge is: articulation between projects involving the outskirts of the town and its metropolis, between urban, metropolitan, regional and national authorities. The history of Nanterre set out at the beginning of the baseline is one illustration, amongst so many others, of the answers found to questions about distribution of the roles between the State and the towns over the centuries. This is a central theme for the network. If it cannot answer Nanterre’s problems, comparison of this distribution and its effects on designing and implementing urban projects that the network will allow will be particularly rewarding.