Lille after Euralille

EUROPEAN MID-SIZE CITY
Throughout history European cities survived and prospered by being able to adapt to contemporary challenges. Our project is a search for the capacity for their fundamental spatial, but also cultural and intellectual transformation. It is a bid to embrace the forces of Globalization, to see them in a positive context. Ultimately it is an attempt at creating a lasting, resilient urban condition.
A sequence of key questions guided our search: Can European mid size cities find their place in an increasingly globalizing world? What are their competitive advantages? Unique values? How can they cope with an ever less predictable context? Environmental challenges? How can they deal with complex, simultaneous and often contradictory processes of Regionalization, Globalization and local patriotisms. Can they still afford satellite extensions?

LILLE…
Lille is an exemplary case for the postulated subject. It emerged from the crisis in 80-ies as the regional center by being the fastest in transforming from the industrial into a city based on the service and creative industries. In the 90-ies Eurallile was developed. It was the exemplary infra hub development that included high speed train station. It strengthened Lille’s domination in the region.
major current spatial initiatives still happen at the city’s fringes. The old city core of Lille consists of paradigmatic historical urban patterns juxtaposed one to the other: medieval to Flemish, Flemish to Hausmannian. Human scale Paris! As such A good portion of the old city core is practically untouchable.

…AFTER EURALILLE
We accept the “untouchable” character of most of Lille’s iconic old city core. And also acknowledge the qualities and importance of Euralille and Grand Projects as such. But instead of repeating them elsewhere, the proposal attempts at finding the room for the future city regeneration in its very heart, or more precisely in its heart’s forgotten bit.
Vast areas of seemingly less appreciated old city core bear an enormous, though latent, development capacity. The project depicts those districts and defines basic spatial and programmatic guidelines for their densification. It reinvents Lille’s capacity for transformation, enabling it to maintain and enhance its position and contribute to the progress of the whole region.