European urban cities trends, a case study of two projects

7th SEM DISSERTATION VIA University College, Horsens, Denmark

Figure 1: VM Husene Ørestad, Copenhagen. Source: (Jepsen, 2007)

“European urban cities trends, a case study of two projects, L'ile de Nantes in France and the Ørestad neighbourhood in Copenhagen. Two different future and stories, of two modern cities: how and why we can say that one reached his goal and the over one failed in some ways?”

AUTHOR: Etienne Menguy CONSULTANT: Torben Hinke Lundberg DATE: 16 March 2018 Bachelor of Architectural Technology and Construction Management

Etienne Menguy – 7th semester – 16 March 2018

TITLE PAGE Architectural Technology and Construction Management – BATCoM Title of DISSERTATION: “European urban cities trends, a case study of two projects, L'ile de Nantes in France and the Ørestad neighbourhood in Copenhagen. Two different future and stories, of two modern cities: how and why we can say that one reached his goal and the over one failed in some ways?”

CONSULTANT: Torben Hinke Lundberg AUTHOR: Etienne Menguy DATE/SIGNATURE: March 2018 STUDENT IDENTITY NUMBER: 250904 NUMBER of COPIES: 1 No. of PAGES: 38 No. of CHARACTERS: 68 568 FONT: Calibri, 12

All rights reserved – no part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the author.

NOTE: This dissertation was completed as part of a Bachelor of Architectural Technology and Construction Management degree course – no responsibility is taken for any advice, instruction or conclusion given within!

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Preface The subject of my elective program in 7th semester came when I was wandering in Nantes, in France. A big refurbishment and urbanism project in my born city in Nantes, France is under construction. The project concerns the island of Nantes and the Ørestad district at Copenhagen, both of them are national, European projects. I aim through these projects to extend my knowledge of urban planning.

This is a subject that, during my studies, I have not discovered enough and that seems to me interesting. I grew up in this city and saw it change for over 20 years. I would like, through this dissertation, to understand how urban planners, architects and construction stakeholders have joined forces to respond to the current challenges that we must follow for the good of our planet. Indeed, Nantes aims to become a metropolis within France and must adapt and become a model city for future generations as Copenhagen in Scandinavia.

Abstract This report has been written as a final 7th semester dissertation for the Bachelor of Architecture Technology and Construction Management education as a part of final examination.

The document aims to provide the necessary answers to understanding the planning and realization of urban megaprojects. Based on the study of two cases of long-term urban planning that are the island of Nantes and Ørestad.

In addition, this document explains the different foundations of these projects as well as the usefulness of their existence. Get a better understanding of the birth of this type of project.

To another extent, the paper seeks to identify the crucial criteria for the success of these projects. Both in terms of planning, organization and financing.

This one tends to elucidate the current situation of the two projects and especially one of them, Ørestad which still inherits the nickname of "ghost city". Basically, this dissertation will be a cross-sectional study of two projects to better understand the functioning of urban planning mechanisms.

Keywords Megaprojects, development

urban

planning,

Europe,

well-being,

planning,

environment,

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Contents Preface .............................................................................................................................. 3 Abstract ............................................................................................................................ 3 Keywords .......................................................................................................................... 3 1.

Problem background ................................................................................................ 5

2.

Problem statement ................................................................................................... 5

3.

Research questions................................................................................................... 5

4.

Delimitation .............................................................................................................. 6

5.

Empirical data and theories ...................................................................................... 6

6.

Report structure ....................................................................................................... 6

7.

Historical situation: Why did they initiate those projects? ...................................... 7 7.1.

Historical situation of the Ørestad project at its initiation ................................ 7

7.2.

Historical situation of the “Île de Nantes” project at its initiation .................... 9

7.3.

The consequent influence of the starting situation ........................................ 11

8.

What were the goals, targets and projects, for who? A way of doing things ........ 12 8.1.

Ørestad............................................................................................................. 12

8.1.1.

Transports ................................................................................................. 13

8.1.2.

Targets ...................................................................................................... 14

8.2.

Île de Nantes .................................................................................................... 17

8.2.1.

Transports ................................................................................................. 18

8.2.2.

Targets ...................................................................................................... 19

8.3.

Daily well-being, an imperative for success..................................................... 22

9. Problems encountered, risky investments, what difficulties with projects of this scale? .............................................................................................................................. 24 10.

Current situation, a successful bet? Future and expectations ........................... 29

10.1.

Exit strategy and future ................................................................................ 29

10.2.

Decide–announce–defend strategy (Majoor, 2014) .................................... 32

11.

Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 33

List of references ............................................................................................................ 35

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1. Problem background This report is aiming at finding information and explications about modern urbanism.

Europe is not a patchwork of many countries anymore and defined itself more as an inspiration source and mutual aid between metropolises. Through those two examples projects, we can observe two similar manners of making urban planning which have against all expectations obtained diametrically different results.

This report will have for goal to analyse and identify these elements which break the similarities of these project to bring a clearer vision of their actual situation.

2. Problem statement “The cities everyone wants to live in, should be clean and safe, possess efficient public services, be supported by a dynamic economy, provide cultural stimulation, and also do their best to heal society’s divisions of race, class, and ethnicity. These are not the cities we live in.” (Sennett, 2006) This report is written as a dissertation in the 7th semester Constructing Architect degree course. Both of the projects that I will talk about have been thinking for years, since the 90’s. One of the aims is to understand and find information about urban megaprojects.

Due to the European crisis, the big urban projects had to adapt themselves to new rules.

They are projects that aim to integrate massive real estate investment in long terms.

This makes them very complex because they are no more any less than speculative projects which can derail from their original trajectory. Through those projects, it’s important to understand and investigate the questions and reasons that gave them their current situations, because today, large projects are thinking for long periods, but it does not avoid the issues that can appears abruptly. One of the project is situated in Nantes, France and is called “l’île de Nantes”, the other one is the neighbourhood of Ørestad in Copenhagen. I will try to find an answer to this question “European urban cities trends, a case study of two projects, L'ile de Nantes in France and the Ørestad neighbourhood in Copenhagen. Two different future and stories, of two modern cities: how and why we can say that one reached his goal and the over one failed in some ways?”

3. Research questions  Why initiating a mega urban project? Does the historical situation has an impact on it?

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 What kind of projects, what goals? Is there a perfect way to urban planning?  What problems can appear? What are the risks? How to finance as big?  What are the current situation of these project? Did they reach their goals?

4. Delimitation I will limit the report to the two projects and I’m not going to talk about all the other mega urban project in Europe because they are so many examples and each one need a real investment to explain its situation and development.

I will not go extremely deep into the financials and strategic points because they are complexes and they would necessitate more explanation. But I will approach them by necessity.

5. Empirical data and theories The report is based primarily on the analytical research methodology, trying to find answers to questions based on the analysis of the information contained on the Internet and the existing literature.

Moreover, the data and references will come from experts and from the countries that are involved in the projects. This document will be based on the theses and research of several urban planners and architects, especially concerning the Ørestad project, which has been extensively studied.

6. Report structure The report will contain information and explanations about the project of Nantes and Copenhagen. First I will talk about the historical situation of these project to better understand from where they come, what was their utility and first ideas.

Secondly, I will try to understand what their goals were and what their strategies were.

For that, I will go through the official websites of the projects and reports which have been established along the construction.

Then I will research the problems that they encountered and why. This point as for goal to know if they would have been prevented during the planning phase.

To conclude, I will take a regard at their current situation to know what they did so far.

I will expose their future plans and solutions that they have found to solve the possible problems they had. It will mainly focus on the Ørestad project.

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7. Historical situation: Why did they initiate those projects?

It’s important to know the early stages of those projects to better understand their current states. How did they come to life? Did they have a real necessity to exist? Why are they born? What was the social-economic situation at their creation? Numerous elements influenced those projects, it seemed important to plan it in the best way their realisations even if would took years to do it.

The principal idea of the Ørestad project were “to start a project of large-scale planned urbanization in a part of the city that was always considered its “backwater”, the somewhat sleepy island of Amager” (Christensen, 2003). In the same way, the island of Nantes has been created “to create a strong, operational and central urban and metropolitan centre of the Nantes / Saint-Nazaire metropolis” (Chemetoff, 1993) in a part of the city that had been leave out of production after the slow French deindustrialisation period.

7.1. Historical situation of the Ørestad project at its initiation As mentioned previously, the Ørestad project was born on nothing but grass, brushwood and highway. In 1992, the situation of this abandoned part of Copenhagen has changed because the unused areas were regarded as being too valuable. In 1993, the organisation Ørestad Development Corporation was founded to manage the site.

Therefore, the project has been rapidly contested and pointed out for is illogical position regarding the initial municipality urban plan which was consisted to develop the city in the north, west and south-west parts (Ørestad being situated at the south-east).

Figure 2: Egnsplankontoret, Skitseforslag til egnsplan for Storkøbenhavn (Copenhagen Finger Plan) - Tutein & Koch, Copenhagen, Denmark (1947)

Figure 3: Satellite image of Copenhagen with location of the Ørestad project, by OG Havn

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Furthermore, the project was aiming to be constructed in a protected ecological zone, thus, it aroused the fury of the ecological institutions. Developing a new neighbourhood at this place was also meaning creating many harbour crossings to access there, which mean huge costs.

So, there was really a necessity of existence of this project?

Personally, I would say yes. Apart from its tangible separation from the established plans, it was an excellent opportunity for an opening to the UE. Indeed, since many years the Danish government wanted to create a “wider economic and geopolitical developments to build a fixed link to Sweden." (Majoor, 2014).

Passed in a new political context due to the recent Sweden and Finland adhesion to the UE, Denmark rallying the UE two years before, the city leaders were worried to be submerged by those two economic forces and were mandatory to make Copenhagen growing up to attract new companies and economic opportunities. By creating this new corridor, between Denmark and Sweden, it was method to connect by a terrestrial way to the north new UE economy. For that, they organized an international competition to create a master plan. “A plan of hope and glory”, which aimed to be “an example of development planning in Denmark after Maastricht” (Jørgensen, 1997) In an over political context, the project wanted to be innovative to some extent. An innovative coalition between two layers of power that hadn’t collaborate that much together, the municipality and the state.

The project tackling several political rivalries and criticizing, it was decided in 1991, to create a specific Ørestad law. This law aiming to create a separate of political, identical and ideological entity which would be able to manage the project development without any influences from any parties. From that came in 1993 “Ørestadsselskabet” (Ørestad Development Corporation, ODC), owned at 55% by the municipality and 45% by the state.

Through this new coalition has been born a speculative financial plan that we can define as a dangerous one. The newly created society had to borrow a huge amount of money wherewith to start the new and colossal metro line. Plan for the next 30 years, the loan aimed to be paid back from the future sold plots. A bet for the least risky.

“But could we invent money? It was like alchemy: how to invite gold from nothing!”

(Mikkelsen, 2013)

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The ambition of the project was to build a linear city around the metro line, where along it, would be implanted the highest buildings letting a very reasonable distance to access by walking the metro stations. Ørestad dreaming itself has a city in the city full of infrastructural mix, it would bring together “offices (60%), housing (20%), and facilities (20%)” (Ørestadsselskabet, 1995), oriented to the international business.

In total, 3.1 million square metres of developable space were at disposition.

7.2. Historical situation of the “Île de Nantes” project at its initiation In 1987, the French industrialization decelerating, the famous “Chantiers Dubigeon” must be closed. These shipyards correspond to five generations of one and unique family who, since 1760, is part of the French naval construction leaders. Occupying in quasi-totality l’île de Nantes, the closing of these emblematic sites is letting place to a huge constructible parcel. From that, a paradox is created. Nantes finds itself in an extreme social crisis due to the several workers that are facing to the unemployment after the closing but then has a fantastic opportunity to develop an innovating and modern space (350 hectare) at the heart of the city.

Then came the times to think about a refurbishment and the question “what to do with that space?”. An incredible resistance appeared. Some formers shipbuilders staunchly defended the symbols of this heritage to avoid them to disappear.

For 3 years, the island stayed unoccupied and started to be forgotten by the “Nantais” (which is the name of the people who are living in Nantes).

At the beginning of the 90’s, the city felt, as Copenhagen as did, the needed of developed its commercial structure and to turn its look towards Europe. As Ørestad did, a competition has been organized to elect a new urban plan.

Here, the question “Is there a real necessity of doing something at this place?” was not even evoked. This central area, this unused space, must be reused, it was impossible to let such big place waste away. The main question was “how to refurbish this place? In which way? Indeed, the challenge was to create something that could be used by the Nantes’s citizens.

Do not contrary the old workers and citizens and so conserve the heritage, history of the island while developing new manners of lifeway that permit to attract the younger citizens was the big difficulty.

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At this time, the political climate was good in Nantes and almost every parties were agreed to create a diversified place which would be able to receive many types of usages and populations. They wanted to reconquer the public space while making the river the central object of the restructuration. To avoid the apparition of contestations, the winners of the competition decided to create a guide plan which could be changed by anyone to a certain extent, a guide plan on which one they could “lean so that anybody can give is opinion, that this drawing of the city make public and readable the new city plan.” (Chemetoff, 1993). T The guide plan has been updated every semester to keep its flexibility that allowed it to welcome every change.

For a political equality, Nantes used the same system as Ørestad and created a separated organization called “SAMOA” which means arrangement society of the west Atlantique metropolis. This public society is, unlike Ørestad, composed essentially by public shareholders, Nantes Metropolis (58%), city of Nantes (17%), General Council of LoireAtlantique (5%), Agglomeration Community of the Nazaire Region and the Estuary (CARENE) (5%), Regional Council Pays de la Loire (5%) and other authorities (10%).

It was expected from this project, 46.6% of residential housing, 30% offices, activities and businesses and 23.4% of equipment (The future hospital would took 250 000m² of 350 000m²), the and 150 hectares of urban development and public spaces.

In total, 3.7 million square metres of developable space were at disposition.

ØRESTAD Facilities 20% Housing 20%

NANTES

Facilities 23% Offices 60%

Figure 5: Repartition diagram of the project’s types at Ørestad

Housing 47% Offices 30%

Figure 4: Repartition diagram of the project’s types at Nantes

These repartition diagram above shows the difference in the type investment of the two project.

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7.3. The consequent influence of the starting situation The historical and political situation at the moment of the decision is such as important that we can almost already evaluate the success of the projects. Through the histories of these projects, it is easy enough to distinguish three axes that would have been determined their success capacity. Theses decisional and influencer axes are taking shapes around a social, political and local axis.

The social axis corresponds to the global appreciation of the project by the citizens at its promulgation and its study. Where Copenhagen launched its project without a real citizen consultation and facing the disapprobation of the associations, Nantes’s project built itself in relation to the citizens, by doing a guide plan and conferences to discuss it.

Even if they were a necessity it is possible that it has not been heard in the same logic in the quotidian of citizens conversely to the Nantes’s project.

“Its closed business style formula largely alienated the project from Copenhagen's social, civic and cultural domains, who were also upset about the fact that the project was partly planned in a protected green area—a restriction that was overruled by the government.”

(Majoor, 2009) “There has always been a lot of opposition against Ørestad. People don't understand what Ørestad is and why it is build. And it is far away [from the city centre] and it is out in the poorest area of Copenhagen.” ((CPD), 2013) The political axis defined the position statement of the political groups in the next years.

The apparent rivalries during the layout of Ørestad project certainly had consequences on its future, fortunately, the creation of the Ørestad Development Corporation allowed the easing of tensions.

From a local axis, they are completely different. By local axis or aspect, I want to point out from where they come from and what was their heritage. As we know, before Ørestad there was nothing there and they had to build everything from zero and this change completely the relation between Nantes and Ørestad. Indeed, the island of Nantes is situated near to the old town and the city centre and had its own history which has been built during years. As the supervisor of the project, was saying "It's a series of travel, visit. All the memory of the place is visible on the terrain and it is not limited to a single story but a series of stories that are all present". (Chemetoff, 1993) Ørestad project was a creation and the “île de Nantes” a transformation but both wanted to create an urban mix.

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8. What were the goals, targets and projects, for who? A way of doing things So that a project to be remarkable, noticed, it must emerge an identity from it. It needs a particular manner of doing things. Something that is instantly makes reveal its personality, thus its attraction will be more unique and strong. Ørestad was, by its shape, already a remarkable project. All in length, almost 5 kilometres long and only six hundred meters wide, the project was sometimes called the Copenhagen’s sixth finger. The island of Nantes is, its, remarkable by its position, indeed, stuck between two rivers arm, its position allows to build buildings with many beautiful views and a makes the environment which was already pleasant to live.

8.1. Ørestad During the development of the Ørestad project, they wanted to do something new, modern, innovative which could create an intelligent and unique way to connect Sweden to Denmark. Ørestad had for goal to be this link, creating by this way the Øresund region (Greater Copenhagen). By creating an economical road which would be the only crossroad allowing rallied to Scandinavia by Malmö and relieve pressure on Copenhagen’s Central Business District. The goals of this project was without any doubts a project where they concentrate all their minds to the yields.

Maximise profits and reduce the life dimension.

Around the future metro line there would have been the biggest building of the neighbourhood and further you get from the station more the buildings are small and residential.

In 1994, an overall masterplan is revealed and shows that the project will be divided in four districts which are:    

Ørestad North Amager Fælled Ørestad City Ørestad South

Figure 6: Map of Ørestad, (Hansen, 2011)

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8.1.1. Transports First of all, let’s talk about the transport idea that they got. As recalled, Ørestad is over connected to Copenhagen and the main ways to Sweden. Four kinds of transports are accessible from Ørestad:    

Motorway Train Metro Airport

Obviously, the main idea was to connect the new economic centre of Copenhagen to the rest of Europe. As we can see below, the metro is going all of the lengths of Ørestad.

You come to work, from Copenhagen, then you just have to take the metro and you will stop at the foot of the building, you come only for couple of weeks to work, then you’re just 15 minutes from hotels and companies, you are tired of transportations to go work every morning, then you can even live in Ørestad residential housing, etc. By exaggerated, it is in this way that Ørestad has been thinking.

“In under three minutes you can be on the motorway, the Metro, the Øresund train or the buses. In under six minutes, you can be at Copenhagen Airport or the Øresund Bridge, where journey time to Sweden is under half an hour, while getting to Copenhagen city centre and the main station takes just 10 minutes.” (BY&HAVN, s.d.)

Figure 7: Main crossroads and transportation ways, (BY&HAVN, s.d.)

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8.1.2. Targets 8.1.2.1.

Workers

The targets, being 60% international companies, the neighbourhood was thought for this type of population. Large spaces, abundant vegetation, and the absence of visible carpark that are voluntarily expensive and located in the basement of buildings, etc.

The environment was expected to be perfect to work. The offices have been created and thinking to attract workers and companies. As an example, the company Ferring Pharmaceuticals has been the first one to install their headquarters in Ørestad. During over two years they’ve been the only office building in the neighbourhood but they never doubted of the perspective that they had invested for.

“We never had the thought if this was going to fail. We knew from the very beginning that this area was going to be attractive because of the international rail road, the metro, the airport very close and a bus stop at the foot of the building.” (Jensen, 2011) They pointed out that one of the substantial points is that when they need to find workers qualified for something they can also take a look at Sweden workers not only Danish ones.

Figure 8: The 15000 square meters and 20 floors of the Ferring building. Source: Ørestad.dk 2002

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8.1.2.2.

Families

Behind the desire to attract big international companies, 20% had been planned to the population of families with children. To be attractive to them, they highlighted the natural areas which would be nearby the houses and block of flats houses but still 10 minutes to the city centre from anywhere you are in Ørestad.

Figure 10 : The population and residences in Ørestad. It is clear to see that more and more people move to the area. Source: Copenhagen Municipality 1th of January

Figure 9: Empty residences in Ørestad. Information: Copenhagen Municipality 1th of January.

To make it even more attractive they decided to create a neighbourhood which would be remarkable by its buildings and its modernity. Many symbols buildings have been built because it was an incredible opportunity for architects companies to experiment their idea that wouldn’t be possible to create somewhere else.

Thought for families 8house is the best example of what Ørestad wanted to create to invite families to live there.

Figure 11: 8house by night. Source: Wikipedia

The building has been thinking for that the people can have free times and great family times, used for activities and so on. Divided in 476 homes as penthouses, regular apartments and town houses.

They made a building that allows every houses to be different and gave a personality to each ones.

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They also benefit from the construction of the building to create child-friendly area. All around the building there is a 1 kilometre path “and functions as a natural meeting place for the residents of the estate and a safe way of travel for children when they go visit each other.” (Copenhagen, s.d.)

8.1.2.3.

Accommodations

The Bella Sky Comwelli, is one of the famous hotel that has been created at Ørestad. By creating 814 rooms, 30 conferences rooms, 3 restaurants, two bars and a spa it gives shape to it everything that we can expect from a hotel for international workers which are here for deals.

Four massive hotels of this types have been built since the project started. They are all searching for the same customers who are business workers.

All of them are impressive by their architectural conception, however, it’s difficult to imagine living next to offices and hotels.

8.1.2.4.

Knowledge, culture and entertainment It was expecting at Ørestad 80,000 people to work, 25,000 people to live in Ørestad and 20,000 people to study.

We can see clearly on that image, the four districts. In the north Ørestad, they decided to create the studying area, with accommodations and everything which would be useful for student. So that, they did 2 universities and dedicated this district for innovations and culture. They also created a school, a college and a library.

From an entertainment point of view, the north district is empty at this exception of the concert hall designed by Jean Nouvel.

Admittedly, the district is very close from the centre of Copenhagen and it is the Figure 12: Aerial view of Ørestad. Source: (BY&HAVN, s.d.) best connected. In the southern part of the neighbourhood we can find the huge Royal Arena which expect to welcome 16000 guests. Wandering or not in Ørestad it is also possible to find the huge and remarkable

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Field’s shopping and entertainment centre which is the largest one of Scandinavia but which was not planned as we will see.

8.2. Île de Nantes The great “île de Nantes” was a boon in a precarious situation. A favourable environment to intense development but to build on ruins.

"The closure of construction sites is an injury for Nantes, the fate of the city is played here." (Jean Mar Ayraut - Deputy Mayor of Nantes, 2008) When the guide plan was unveiled, this one attached itself to create a global transformation that can accommodate a large diversity of usages and populations respecting the present stability of the environment.

Reconfiguring its space and exploiting its historic heritage, Nantes posed the founding frames of its urban politic. At the centre of guide plan, was the Nantes’s river, the “Loire” which is the longest river in France. During years Nantes has been called the west Venice because of the numerous rivers that were crossing the city. After they filled the spaces between the islands to create the one we know today, they kept the close relationship that has created between Nantes and the water and it was the aim of the architects and urban planners to keep longer this relationship even if the boat industries had sunk.

Recreate the water city.

Seven districts were existent in the neighbourhood. The challenge was to give back their identities to those districts, take it into account during the thinking phases. They decided then to keep their implantation for the future urban plan.    

Pointe ouest (West point) Quartier de la création (Creation district) République les ponts (Republic of bridges) Mangin

  

Fonderies Beaulieu Pointe est (East point)



Figure 13: Districts map of the Island. Source: Original creation

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By creating districts with identities it is easy to lose the general identity of the island, that is why then they decided to create a landscape frame, which could link every district together as Ørestad did with the canal which is going all the length of the neighbourhood. Where we can see a big difference between the two projects, it is in the repartition of the projects types. Indeed, where Nantes decided to occupy the space with 47% residential housing, Ørestad did 20%. If we are still referring to the reparation diagrams (Cf figure 4, 5), 30% of the surface is allocated to the offices. If both projects are talking about an urban mix, Nantes respected better its intention.

Nantes didn’t aim a return on investment as high as Ørestad aimed, and they had focused more their thought on the urban-friendly living dimension.

8.2.1. Transports Many bridges (thirteen bridges) were already existent between the city centre, the island and the southern part of Nantes which linked the 7 different neighbourhoods of the island but they weren't constructed to facilitate the access for citizens but for workers and trucks. An important restructuration of transports was obviously needed.

During the large development of the tramway lines in Nantes, it has been decided to create a line which would cross the island at a strategic point that would be an important platform to connect Nantes to the rest of the region.

A few years later, they created another line which is a bus line but which works like a tramway line to reduce the overcrowding traffic and create continuity between urban spaces. In the next years, another tramway line should be born and serve the island from the East point to the West point.

The island is situated 15minutes far from the airport and close to the train station which is easy to access with the tramway or bus lines.

Nantes is very well connected to its city and to the national, international transports.

Figure 14: Intention plan of the restructuration. Source: îledenantes.com

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8.2.2. Targets It was possible to achieve many things with such a surface in the heart of the city. The final plan was, as we have seen, focused on a vision of complete urban diversity. Not separating offices, residences, university spaces, cultural and commercial spaces, but establishing them judiciously.

Connected by the Loire, Nantes and Saint-Nazaire aimed to be, together, a new big metropolis. In Saint-Nazaire there are the largest shipyards in France, this close relationship between those two large cities is vein which must had to be exploited.

8.2.2.1.

Workers

"The Ile de Nantes is an urban laboratory which prefigures the city of tomorrow, at once efficient, sustainable, attractive and innovative... an animated area for the people of Nantes, featuring richly diverse neighbourhoods." (Johanna Rolland, 2017) Several offices projects went out from the earth through years. At the difference of Ørestad, Nantes had a different vision of the working activities that want establish their offices on the Island of Nantes. Indeed, they wanted to mix the functions to contribute at a social cohesion. Creating 350 000 square meters of activities they wanted to attract 15 000 new employees. Many buildings were mixed between offices and housing, only a few of them are just dedicated to offices.

The companies MAN (Trucks and Bus Company), INSEE (National Institute of statistics and economical study) or ALSTOM installed their offices in the island, the proximity to the train station and the airport is perfect for this kind of company. Not on this island but near to it connected by a bridge the future Euronantes is in development and have for purpose to “promote the hosting of a European-scale business centre, in a diverse neighbourhood of urban quality and landscaping, in the immediate vicinity of the TGV station.” (SAMOA, 2008)

Figure 15: We can see here, the Euronantes district connected by different bridges on both sides of the Island. Source: Nantes development

Euronantes is a project which is completely in part of the Island project even if he is not only built on it. They have thought the project in correlation with the creation of this European business district reckoning it to be on the island. So that, they created the district on both sides of the rivers.

In total it’s 70 000 square meters th at will be constructing.

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It is important to understand that Nantes tried to create an economy which would be complete in all terms. The project was aiming a European vision. At Saint Nazaire, there is the industrial economy, next to it, at La Baule there is a touristic economy and in the city centre of Nantes the public and services economy. The island of Nantes would bring this three economy together in its centre.

Figure 16: On this pictures representing Euronantes we can see similarities with Ørestad, large spaces, abundant vegetation, the absence of visible carpark, etc. Source: (Architectes, s.d.)

8.2.2.2.

Families

As we have understood, the project wanted to be comfortable for every kind of populations. Thus, social housing, students housing, families housing have been projected to be built. They also created many spaces for crossings and meetings as it has been done in Ørestad, around the 8 house project.

Around 47% housings are planned on the island. The urban life dimension has been intensively thought so that the island would not lose its lifestyle and would go in a way a much modern way of the build which would consist only on thinking the practicality of the quotidian but would also think about and mostly on the daily well-being.

As Ørestad, they planned to create an ecologically friendly neighbourhood. Most of the buildings are in advance opposite to the actuals environmental regulations. In the same way, many architectural companies and workshop wanted to build buildings on the island because of the experimentation possibility that they would have on their projects.

Obviously, it seems like Nantes wanted to shine in the French and European landscape to attract companies and citizens.

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8.2.2.3.

Accommodations

There is on the island only two hotels. They made this choice for many reasons. You are that even close from the city centre that they thought there was no need to get more hotels in it. One of the two, has been built in the ancient place where was the "Tripod" which has been demolished to create the Euronantes district. Closer to the European district they would serve more as an alternative solution for the companies. The hotels that can be qualified of luxurious are all on the other side facing the island, where we can find buildings that are for the same clientele.

8.2.2.4.

Knowledge, culture and entertainment

Nantes has always been a land of novelty and culture. Towards the end of the 90s, when the shipyards closed, the island of Nantes, now abandoned, became the underground place for all Nantes youth. In the mid-90s a festival comes to settle on the lands of the island and the cultural and entertainment machine is launched.

Becoming, in the course of its rehabilitation, the place of excellence for the Nantais evening, the development of the city of tomorrow is done following this trend. In the early 2000s then create the famous and today internationally known "Island Machines" created by the Royal De Luxe Company. The Nantais are invited through exhibition, wacky and mechanical objects to plunge at the crossroads of the worlds of Jules Vernes (native of Nantes) and the world of Leonardo da Vinci. The cultural and avant-garde reputation of Nantes quickly becomes national and develops internationally.

Figure 18: The most famous attraction of the Royal De Luxe Company, the mechanical elephant. Source:

Figure 17: The most famous attraction of the Royal De Luxe Company, the mechanical elephant. (Thinktank, 2012)

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The old docks of the island, destined for several years to the banana trade, are rehabilitated at the end of the 2000s and are transformed into a place of life where it is possible to eat, go out to bars, to dance, to be outdoors and indoors. By creating this open belvedere on the Loire it is decided to keep the harbour and minimalist image of the industrial times.

Thus, by distinguishing between its history, cultural activity and nocturnal activities, the island creates an environment aimed at all types of people and creates a rich place of life. The west point would be dedicated to the culture and entertainment.

The creation district is similar to the Ørestad north district. It was decided during the development of the plans that this district would be destined to an approach of teaching, of cultural awakening and bubbling of the creative arts. In doing so, Nantes School of Architecture was the first to settle on the island, today joined by the School of Fine Arts. This place, to combine, under the old rehabilitated halls of ALSTOM, 5 areas of creative industries such as communication, design, the performing arts, architecture, visual arts. In addition, several exhibition sites, regularly renewed, were created to keep a continuous effervescence.

8.3. Daily well-being, an imperative for success From the study of these two projects and their intentions, it is possible to identify several similarities and differences that make them unique.

In general, looking at the global arrangement of their districts, it is already possible to identify these great similarities. The same layout schemes were applied to both projects.

At Ørestad a district dedicated to culture and studies, then a natural reserve of green space connected to a business district remarkable by its gigantism, its hotels and a last space reserved for housing and daily life with beautiful, experimental, modern and ecological buildings.

Nantes, develops on these existing districts, but in smaller portions, giving life to 7 districts against 4. These 7 districts have the same combination, the East point of the island is a natural place connected to the business district Euronantes which is part of the Beaulieu district, mainly represented by the commercial centre of the same name and some residential buildings. Continuing from east to west, enclave between the district Beaulieu and the district of the creation the districts Mangin, Foundries and Republic bridges, these districts are composed of old industrial sites rehabilitated in modern buildings with high environmental responsibilities and historical buildings, these are the districts similar to the residential part of Ørestad then the district of the creation which is similar to the northern district of Ørestad, a real invitation to culture and art.

But only one district, corresponding to more than a quarter of the surface of the island

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is differentiated. Indeed, the entire western point of the island is dedicated to a place of life, celebration and discovery through its attractions, bars and restaurants.

I think that it is this last district which is making the biggest difference between our two projects, apart the gigantic dimension of the business area of Ørestad.

If we are looking closer to the Euronantes district and the Ørestad city district we can see many common points as we have already said. But where Nantes decided to move away its financial district from the heart of its island, Ørestad placed it in the middle of its centre. This means, that if you are living in the south Ørestad and you want to go for a walk in the Amager Fælled reserve, you have, before reach this point, to cross the largest district of the neighbourhood which is completely empty during the weekend, this explain better where the "ghost city" nickname comes from.

Both cities have been clearly well-developed in transports. They are both connected, to airport, train station, they have also their own metro/tramway lines, bus, etc. The housing has been thinking for well-living and creates meetings.

Culture seems to have taken an important place during the planning of these two projects. Both have a neighbourhood dedicated to knowledge, culture and art.

Universities, places that are conducive to creation, dedicated to this, several art infrastructures, etc. It is an indispensable element in the creation of such neighbourhoods and none of them has underestimated it.

But an essential element to any neighbourhood and that seems to have been "forgotten" in Ørestad is the creation of infrastructure to bring together, to entertain.

Everything has been thought for the well-being, but forgetting what makes a city its effervescence, its places of life, bars, restaurants, discotheques.

The cultural approach is mandatory as much as the quotidian one. Who wants to live somewhere that you are going out of your house and you do not see anything at your doorstep? Not even a natural landscape, but a large street with no one or few people.

Even if the city centre of Copenhagen is 15minutes far, your living place is almost the half of your lifetime.

And the creation of huge shop centre cannot replace the life feeling when you have nothing to do around it. The sensation of perfection can even sometimes be oppressive.

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But, some people can accommodate to this lifestyle as the Helle Harbor which was explaining in an interview that she had particular demands for her, her husband and their son.

“We had some demands when we started to look for a new apartment. The apartment should have balconies, enough space for a dishwasher, a washing machine and dryer and if it was an apartment higher than the ground floor it should have a lift” (Harbor, 2011) That is mean, more or less, that they choose to live there for the quality of the apartment not really for the place itself, but she agreed that sometimes the place can be a bit desert out.

“But it can sometimes seem a little bit deserted out here, because there isn’t that many shops and cafés except inside Field’s” (Harbor, 2011) And like Karoline V. M. Hansen notified, “she said “out-there” about Ørestad because she does not see it as a part of Copenhagen yet, even though it’s not even ten minutes away from the city centre.” (Hansen, 2011)

9. Problems encountered, risky investments, what difficulties with projects of this scale?

Every project even if it has been planned for 10 years will face unexpected issues. Ørestad faced many. The project has been initiated at the dawn of several transformations and is a part of an even more large scale development project along the refurbishment of the North Harbour, the Inner Harbour and the South Harbour. Thus many people are arguing that the harbour development “became a competitive factor very influential on the outcome of the Ørestad project.” (Olsson & Loerakker, 2013) The financial bias at the beginning was a huge risky speculative plan. It created many problems during the development. The ODC was projecting the refund of this new public transport line over several years through the sale of plots, to global companies, along.

An investment in long term to share risks and profits, a financial innovation but unsafe.

The dependence between financing and real estate investment of companies becoming consequent to its good completion, one cannot be done without the other.

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As Lea Olson and Jan Loerakker have noticed in their study of the project (Olsson & Loerakker, 2013), this strategical alliance can be associated to the one Richard Sennett refers as the “closed system” which is ruling the balance of income and expenses.

“The closed system ruled by equilibrium derives from a pre-Keynesian idea of how markets work. It supposes something like a bottom line in which income and expenses balance […] familiar to urban planners in the ways infrastructure resources for transport get allocated.” (Sennett, 2006) In 1998, after seven years of planning and debates, the metro line started its construction. The winner of the master plan competition decided to place the metro line on the east side of Ørestad to let intact one of the priceless biggest areas of nature and this solution convinced to both Nature conservator and the ODC and allowed to the project to start with a better basis. And then, 2 years later the first public and private building constructions in Ørestad finished.

Unfortunately, not everything went as planned and the "global" failure of the project fragmented the return on investment and plunged the debts of the municipality to the lowest. Faced with this lack of money, a solution had to be found.

Thus, two years after the start of the construction of the metro line the state took the initiative to build the huge Field's shopping centre to attract a wider clientele and allow the repayment of debts in a more significant way due the failure of the metro whose ticket sales and use did not reach the expected amounts. The huge building of 178,000 square meters taking place in the middle of the Ørestad Center district it was to become a reference in Scandinavia by becoming the largest shopping centre.

“Fields is the largest shopping and leisure centre in Scandinavia. Besides a wide choice of shops, the centre also boasts many different restaurants and leisure activities, e.g. a children’s fun centre, a 12 holes indoor golf course, hairdressers and a fitness centre. In the future there will also be offices, a hotel and a cinema” (Christensen, 2007) Inhibiting at the same time the creation of small local businesses and therefore the development of a denser and closer urbanity to its inhabitants. Taking advantage of the situation, the creation of a huge square started in front of the mall.

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Numbers worthing a thousand words, the extremely interesting research on the Kay Fiskers Square by Jan (Gehl, 2010) explained that some pedestrian areas are only serving as a ferry from one side to the other when the others are looking to the opportunity of a walk with staying.

Figure 19: “The bar graph shows the average number of people who stay on two newly built squares in Copenhagen and Oslo respectively, on summer days between 12 noon and 4p.m.”

(Gehl, 2010)

“It is almost always simpler and more effective to increase quality and thus the desire to spend time than to increase the number of visitors to the space.

Working with time and quality rather than numbers and quantity also generally improves city quality for the benefit of everyone every day of the year” (Gehl, 2010)

As the graph is showing, the using of the two places is completely different. Despite daily use by about 7000 pedestrians, it remains empty all day due to the average presence of 5.5 people. Indeed, in under a minute it is possible to join the shopping centre. On the contrary the activity on Bryggestorvet Aker Brygge “is 10 times greater because the public is invited both to walk and to stay here.” (Gehl, 2010). Thus, with a usage by 5000 people, an average number of 212 people are present on the square. When they decided to create this mall every possibility of creating an urban quality place to live disappeared.

More people in place does not mean that is a good place.

Without any games of old/new, small/big, width/tight the city lost its possibility to become a place of well-being, life and effervescence and the presence of this huge mall doing facing to the Ørestad central district is not helping to feel in an active-life district.

As Nantes attached itself to do, creating districts with their own identity, Ørestad was aiming the same vision.

“The fully developed Ørestad will not, therefore, look like a continuous urban ribbon, but ideally like a series of separate, harmoniously formed, smaller urban neighbourhoods, strung along the city-line (metro) like pearls on a string” (Ørestadsselskabet, 1994) But the financial return has been overestimated and it is the landscape environment that has suffered the consequences. Indeed, the urban fabric very fragmented has been the object of a lot of critiques.

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Particularly one of them, which was attached to highlight the poor quality of the public spaces that, we recall, are linking in a global manner every building together. This nonattractiveness of public space is probably due to the lack of investments that Ørestad faced to.

“There are different functions in the area, but there is no integrative design. Functions do not relate to each other, outdoor public spaces are empty and unattractive and have little use. There is a considerable lack of spaces that give the area an urban character, like pedestrian zones and ground floor activities. Most people who come to the area only visit the large indoor shopping mall.” (Majoor, 2009) With projects of this scope, it is always difficult to achieve the desired goal. During the development of Ørestad several precautions were taken to avoid to the maximum the problems that they had to face during the construction and the launching of the project but even, some of them are unpredictable.

Many experts that have studied the case have all concluded that on the one hand Ørestad had faced an economy in crisis and had not developed in good conditions but on the other hand the renovation of the harbours of Copenhagen had become a safer investment place and interesting, from a total point of view, and had greatly influenced the success of the project.

Then, from the urban social norms point of view.

The project suffered from this lack of investment and the ODC was not able to argue its position along the government that was worried about the direction the project was taking and had must find a solution which had been the mall. Its Figure 20: A public space in Ørestad (Peter, 2015) proportion and architecture had faced many criticizing due to the huge closed facades that are not inviting people to wander around.

An interesting point is to try to compare is the presence of this mall to the one in the island of Nantes, because there is also one, but it didn't have a negative effect on what was planned.

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The commercial centre of Beaulieu is situated on in the housing part of the Beaulieu district and have been built before the starting of the master plan creation. Formerly turned on its own, the Beaulieu shopping centre is now open on the Boulevard du General de Gaulle. Its expansion and complete restructuring transformed this shopping centre into a true downtown amenity.

All the surrounding space has been redesigned so that it integrates with the future urban plan of the island since it was formerly away from any construction it would become an inherent part of it. A monumental entrance was created at the corner of boulevard, in direct connection with Beaulieu station Busway. A great deal of work on the environment and bicycle lanes has been organized to reconnect the shopping centre to the Loire by creating new traffic lanes.

The importance of integrating this former shopping centre into the future of the project has been carefully and painstakingly applied, where the Field's shopping centre demonstrates the haste and speed of action required for the survival of the project which gave it its architectural weaknesses.

Regarding the development of the urban project of Nantes, it has not met with great difficulties since it was established in connection with the few inhabitants already present on the island and the downstream of Nantes. In financial terms, the rehabilitation works in Nantes took place completely differently as it was shared by many actors and didn’t face real investment issues.

"Launched by Nantes Métropole and the City of Nantes, the transformation of the island of Nantes is an open project, not fixed, shared, and able to accommodate very diverse initiatives. This change is the result of political will and ambition, exchanges with public partners, professional operators of urban development and inhabitants. It is elaborated at each step by the consultation, the negotiation and the debate between all these actors." (Nantes Métropole, 2017)

Figure 22: “Copenhagen metro train on the elevated tracks in Ørestad”. A public Figure 21: The “Quai des Antilles” at Nantes in the West point district dedicated to entertainment. (Jacques, space in Ørestad. Source: (Peter, 2015) 2006)

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10. Current situation, a successful bet? Future and expectations 10.1.

Exit strategy and future

This report is written in 2018, Ørestad and Nantes project started respectively in 1992 and 1994. After more than 20 years of development where are those projects? Did they achieve their goals?

The current situation of Ørestad is less worrying than it was a few years ago. Its population is changing and the projects manage somehow to get out of the ground. The urban environment is still empty and does not allow it yet to detach itself from its name of "ghost city". Several strategies have been put in place over the years in order to fill financial and attractiveness gaps.

Several phases of projects have been defined in order to no longer dig into the financial chasm into which Ørestad was driving. At the beginning of the 2000s the world economy was in good shape, which contributed enormously to the good development of the project and it is well carried until the horizon 2007 then it facing the global economic crisis. The project has suffered enormously from this crisis and it is the housing that has paid the price. In addition to this period one-third of the parcels belonged to investors who went bankrupt. Thus for more than 4 years the ODC has sold no plot of land.

In 2007, it was decided to close the organization of the ODC. Copenhagen facing several new project and Ørestad battling the new neighbourhoods of Nordhavnen and Sydhavnen much more attractive and secure for many investors. In addition, Copenhagen decided to build a circular subway line connecting the quarters of the five fingers of his hand, a construction site that was extremely expensive in time and money.

The financial pressure exerted on the city forced the creation of a political compromise.

It was then decided to create a new organization capable of coordinating projects in a more global way, allocating them a general directive to the city and thus a more homogeneous development with the first objective a reimbursement of the debts of the city by the real estate sales bias.

The By&Havn (Copenhagen City & Port Development) organisation was born and expected to sell plots and supervise the projects for the 70 next years.

In the aftermath of the crisis, large-scale financial investments, unlike the pre-crisis, were much stricter and much less numerous. As investors became frightened by the rapidity and surprise of this global crisis, long-term speculative bets no longer interested them.

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Thus, after years of stable and disappointing sales, the new urban strategy developed between the residential districts of Ørestad and the business district of Ørestad Center was published. This strategy is developing around a flagship project that is the new sports complex of Ørestad, the Royal Arena. Thus, the creation of a new district is emerging in the heart of Ørestad. Much more in line with the original idea of the project, urban planners and architects replayed with forms and sizes to give this neighbourhood a more human dimension and get closer to the population while keeping the design of the original lines of the project.

Figure 24: To vary the scales of sizes, to improve the transitions. Source: (Vandkunsten, 2014) Figure 23: Master plan of the future Arena district. Source: (Vandkunsten, 2014)

The "old" neighbourhoods of Ørestad, today benefit from the momentum of renewal that floats on the city. Several initiatives are being implemented to bring life to the neighbourhood. The northern district of Ørestad is now very well connected to the rest of Copenhagen because it is the one that has the urban dimension, well-being, hoped from the early stages of the project.

Indeed, since the end of the works in several zones, the inhabitants and employees in these sectors begins to appropriate the places.

One of the striking examples, as highlighted (Majoor, 2014), in its article dedicated to relief strategies borrowed, and to the potential evolutions of this project, the canal that was first built for aesthetic and environmental reasons is today the centre of interest for companies, to cross, approach and better integrate its rivers to the environment.

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«Several of the interviewed outside observers see these combinations of temporal, more organically created initiatives as an example of a slowly emerging “second layer” in the urban spaces of Ørestad, complementing its extremely planned “first layer” (interviews outside observers, 2013)” (Majoor, 2014) Thus with the time Ørestad becomes a place that its inhabitants takes ownership little by little. After years of a utopian future creating the economic capital of Scandinavia, the project returns to a more traditional and flexible approach to its urban plan while maintaining its outlines.

By & Havn having the hand on Ørestad he is the final decision-maker in the strategic choices. Nevertheless, several sub-entities were created to get closer to a “more ambidextrous orientation of the project”. Thus smaller scale projects could be implemented more quickly and more regularly. The sharing of projects and the creation of its entities must be exponential and be reviewed throughout the project.

Figure 25: Possible smaller urbanization track around the canal, left the actual plot, right artistic view.

Source: (BCVA Architecture, 2013)

This is how the island of Nantes was developed. During the realization of the different sections of the project the inhabitants of the island took the places and several projects of citizens' initiatives followed the speed of the rehabilitation of the island and the good realization of the project was made side by side.

In addition, the western part of the island being dedicated to a use of leisure, entertainment and culture, the planning study was made knowing the capacity of attraction of this side of the island and it resulted from this a more homogeneous creation of urban public buildings and spaces. Quality urban spaces, invitations to discover along neighbourhoods, a stimulating environment, were key elements for the success of this project.

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10.2.

Decide–announce–defend strategy (Majoor, 2014)

“The Decide – Announce- Defend method is often used in response to emergency situations, since decisions are generated through a hierarchy and do not require consensus. In general, the top of this chain of command is occupied by a group of experts who base their decision on scientific or technical analysis” (Fletcher, 2017) This strategy highlighted by Stan Majoor evokes how Ørestad decided to control its progress. Through this strategy it demonstrates that during the decision phase of the project the ODC carry out several public consultations in order to evolve the project in the best way, as well as the Nantes with the guide plan. But where a crucial difference remains, it is in the strategy that was undertaken after the first major decision of the projects by setting the broad lines. This first part corresponds to the decision making of the project.

Many architects and town planners had, in their minds, created a city model that was to be infallible. This strategy, despite all the possible disputes and best ideas, allow the realization of its project as soon as possible according to the original plans.

Then comes the moment of the announcement and it is here that Ørestad attaches itself directly to a position of defence. Blocking any possibility of change during the evolution of the project and defending it against any organisation. On the contrary, Nantes, as previously mentioned, decided to change its project alongside its citizens.

This defensive strategy which consisted in to reject any changes or new ideas to the project did not prove to be paying for the project and in addition, it annoyed several civic organizations. This system prevented the project to face to the difficulties that it met and reacting quickly and counterbalance these weaknesses.

Today experts agree that every project of this size must be followed by a citizen consultation during its implementation and be flexible to change the parameters, it is the biggest difficulty on megaprojects.

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11. Conclusion Urban megaprojects are no longer novelties and exceptions. Many projects already carried out, or in progress, serve as examples, advice and preventive tools. Europe is a land of opportunity and especially fierce economic and visual competition, so the creation of these projects is only exponentially given the direction of economic policy turned towards the international. Every city wishing to increase its attraction must improve its connection to Europe. It is with this in mind that these two projects have been established. Create urban spaces of quality, innovative, modern, ecological and especially turned towards Europe and the world trade. There is therefore a need for the existence of these projects, they are mandatory to stay in the European and world economy.

But as we have seen, initiating such projects is not easy and takes time. Even planning several years in advance with the meticulousness of a watchmaker, they are not a guarantee of success and can become in the rush of economic and urban disasters. As Ørestad, which in contrast to its original purpose which was to create a new breath to the Danish capital by becoming the Scandinavian economic centre plunge it the financial economy of Copenhagen to the lowest.

The history of these two projects teaches us first of all the importance of a political and social context favourable to the initiation of these. Ørestad failed on this point by becoming a district boycotted by several associations and citizens. Ignoring these inhabitants and the unfavourable opinions, building on a protected area the project took a departure on the bad rails and continued there for a long time. In addition, the project was facing something important, he had to create his story unlike Nantes, which already had his own.

Urbanistic visions tended to create territories hyper connected to the world. Transport facilities being one of Ørestad's main arguments, in order to attract investors. But this vision cantered on hyper connectivity makes this project forget the importance of urban wellbeing. The project quickly turned into a huge untapped piece of life, entertainment and recreation focusing on its profitability. The economic pressure was only stronger, strategic choices that had to be made in a rush and it is the landscape and urban environment that suffered the consequences. The failed attempt to create the Field's shopping centre is the best example. Nantes is to be taken as an example of its urban planning in terms of infrastructure. Its landscape environment was able to blend in with its history and gave the impression of having always existed. Its European dimension was less consistent and decided to concentrate its efforts on the quality of urban life. In addition, unlike Ørestad the project was done in collaboration with these citizens and allowed them to have a better involvement and therefore better understanding of it. It 33

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is clear that Ørestad suffered of this problem from the front and took time to determine a strategy that could improve its image. Additionally, the financial context to contribute to the failure of the project. With the 2008 crisis severely weakening the economy, investors shifted their interests to lower-risk and smaller-scale projects.

After 27 years of existence, the project begins to take a different turn and is slowly appropriated by its inhabitants, giving it the chance of a second wind.

So can we say that these projects have reached their targets and goals?

Over the years, Nantes has been able to blend in with its environment and grow at its own pace. The project is on track and is one of the most attractive and active cities in France. They therefore, from ash, managed to make it one of the most attractive cities of the territory and achieved their goal. Ørestad turns his eyes towards fair and logical initiatives. Despite the difficulties the project is on track to succeed. Time is the most important factor to the success of these projects, we do not create the neighbourhood of tomorrow in one day. Having known for a few years how to make the right decisions by restructuring its urban plan and giving it a more human dimension by playing with shapes, sizes and materials, Ørestad is back on track with its first goals.

In my opinion it is not possible to determine whether a project will succeed or not, but it is also possible to identify many targets that give us clues to success. The social and political context, the master urban lines, the financial plan adopted, the number of actors, are all factors that greatly influence the projects and allow us to identify the weaknesses.

If Ørestad failed to develop as planned, it was one of the most innovative experiments of his time in large-scale urbanization and we can only learn from mistakes to do better next time.

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Christensen, D., 2003. Ørestad. Historic perspective, planning, implementation, documentation [Interview] 2003.

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attractive ghost city.

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Jørgensen, I. K. F. &. N. J., 1997. Making strategic spatial plans, Innovation in Europe. In: A plan of hope and glory. An example of development planning in Denmark after Maastricht.. London: UCL Press, pp. 39-58.

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Majoor, S., 2014. Ørestad: Copenhagen's radical new town project in transition.

Planning Theory & Practice, 15(3), pp. 432-438.

Majoor, S. J. H., 2009. The Disconnected Innovation of New Urbanity in Zuidas Amsterdam, Ørestad Copenhagen and Forum Barcelona. European Planning Studies , 17(9).

Mikkelsen, K., 2013. Interview [Interview] 2013.

Nantes Métropole, 2017. L'Ile de Nantes, un grand projet pour une métropole européenne.

[Online] Available at: https://www.nantesmetropole.fr/decouverte/les-grands-projets/l-ile-denantes-29111.kjsp [Accessed 11 March 2018].

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[Online] Available at: https://www.failedarchitecture.com/the-story-behind-the-failurecopenhagens-business-district-orestad/ [Accessed 17 Février 2018]. Ørestadsselskabet, 1994. Ørestaden, Ideas Competition. Ørestaden, p. 56. Ørestadsselskabet, 1995. Ørestaden, master plan. Copenhagen: Ørestadsselskabet.

Peter, 2015. Copenhagen metro train on the elevated tracks in Ørestad. [Art].

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The Open City.

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Vandkunsten, 2014. Masterplan. s.l.: s.n.

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Etienne Menguy – 7th semester – 16 March 2018

List of illustrations Figure 1: VM Husene Ørestad, Copenhagen. Source: (Jepsen, 2007).............................. 1 Figure 2: Egnsplankontoret, Skitseforslag til egnsplan for Storkøbenhavn (Copenhagen Finger Plan) - Tutein & Koch, Copenhagen, Denmark (1947) .......................................... 7 Figure 3: Satellite image of Copenhagen with location of the Ørestad project, by OG Havn .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Figure 4: Repartition diagram of the project’s types at Nantes ..................................... 10 Figure 5: Repartition diagram of the project’s types at Ørestad ................................... 10 Figure 6: Map of Ørestad, (Hansen, 2011) ..................................................................... 12 Figure 7: Main crossroads and transportation ways, (BY&HAVN, s.d.) ......................... 13 Figure 8: The 15000 square meters and 20 floors of the Ferring building. Source: Ørestad.dk - 2002 ........................................................................................................... 14 Figure 10: Empty residences in Ørestad. Information: Copenhagen Municipality 1th of January............................................................................................................................ 15 Figure 9 : The population and residences in Ørestad. It is clear to see that more and more people move to the area. Source: Copenhagen Municipality 1th of January................ 15 Figure 11: 8house by night. Source: Wikipedia .............................................................. 15 Figure 12: Aerial view of Ørestad. Source: (BY&HAVN, s.d.).......................................... 16 Figure 13: Districts map of the Island. Source: Original creation................................... 17 Figure 14: Intention plan of the restructuration. Source: îledenantes.com .................. 18 Figure 15: We can see here, the Euronantes district connected by different bridges on both sides of the Island. Source: Nantes development ................................................. 19 Figure 16: On this pictures representing Euronantes we can see similarities with Ørestad, large spaces, abundant vegetation, the absence of visible carpark, etc. Source: (Architectes, s.d.) ............................................................................................................ 20 Figure 17: The most famous attraction of the Royal De Luxe Company, the mechanical elephant. (Thinktank, 2012) ........................................................................................... 21 Figure 18: The most famous attraction of the Royal De Luxe Company, the mechanical elephant. Source:............................................................................................................ 21 Figure 19: “The bar graph shows the average number of people who stay on two newly built squares in Copenhagen and Oslo respectively, on summer days between 12 noon and 4p.m.” (Gehl, 2010) ................................................................................................. 26 Figure 20: A public space in Ørestad (Peter, 2015) ........................................................ 27 Figure 21: The “Quai des Antilles” at Nantes in the West point district dedicated to entertainment. (Jacques, 2006) ..................................................................................... 28 Figure 22: “Copenhagen metro train on the elevated tracks in Ørestad”. A public space in Ørestad. Source: (Peter, 2015) ................................................................................... 28 Figure 23: Master plan of the future Arena district. Source: (Vandkunsten, 2014) ...... 30

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Etienne Menguy – 7th semester – 16 March 2018

Figure 24: To vary the scales of sizes, to improve the transitions. Source: (Vandkunsten, 2014) ............................................................................................................................... 30 Figure 25: Possible smaller urbanization track around the canal, left the actual plot, right artistic view..................................................................................................................... 31

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