Reshaping the Industrial Urban Landscape: An Innovative Approach or A Means to Gentrification?

Abstract: The paper questions the meaning of preservation of industrial remnants in former industrial cities. Isolated buildings as factories and abandoned infrastructure and equipment dated on the industrial era are often demolished in favor of contemporary buildings which seem to better correspond to contemporary aesthetics. The concept of industrial heritage is changing with the emergence of Critical Heritage Studies which consider heritage as an evolutionary process that responds to the needs of contemporary societies in terms of sustainable development, economy, or culture. The two case studies of the article are considered as exemplary models of architectural and urban design forms in former industrial cities. On the one hand we have the reconversion project Ile-de-Nantes, a brownfield within the former industrial city of Nantes, a city with a significant industrial heritage. On the other hand, we have the reconversion project Docks-de-Seine, a brownfield located in the city of Saint-Ouen in the outskirts of Paris. The study and comparison of the two case studies revealed the risk of gentrification in former industrial cities as their working-class identity changes due to the arrival of executives and the rejection towards the cities’ periphery of the modest socio-professional categories.