Declining, transition and slow rural territories

As metropolitan areas around the world keep expanding, behind them, rural areas continue to be affected by greater rates of depopulation. This is not a new phenomenon: rural to urban migration has been reported in the developed world at least from the period between the two world wars. However, recent rural depopulation trends have dramatically intensified in both the developed and the developing countries worldwide. In planning literature, greater emphasis is placed on the “urban–rural” divide, that is, people leaving the countryside to look for better opportunities in urban areas. However, a growing body of literature points to the fact that not all rural areas are declining at the same rate. Indeed, some rural towns have managed to retain population and even to grow. Therefore, at least in developed countries, an “intra-rural” divide notion is emerging. To exemplify this notion, we have studied rural towns in Southern Italy.
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Qualitative characterization of rural territories.

Transdisciplinary urbanism: Three experiences from Europe and Canada

The decreasing pace of urban development in economically-troubled Europe allows time for urban practitioners and actors to re-think planning action and its outcomes. In Canada where urban development seems unstoppable, contemplative breaks are as important. From the rubbles of recent environmental and economic crises around the world, in this article we discuss the emergence of a new theoretical approach in urban design and planning that is at the intersection of Socio-Spatial Research, Complexity Theories of Cities, and Urban Activism: Transdisciplinary Urbanism. We deploy three relevant, research projects we have been engaged with to analyze issues, challenges and limitations of Transdisciplinary Urbanism. The time frame of these interventions spans almost a decade.
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“My Public Living Room” on the 26th of June 2014, the last day of the public display.

Source: Galanakis, picture taken in 2014.

City of Science in Luxembourg: Urban Redevelopment of a Steel Mill Areain Esch Sur Alzette in Luxembourg

The new City of Science in Belval, nearby the town of Esch Sur Alzette in Luxembourg, is one of the latest examples of urban redevelopment of a former industrial site to a knowledge-oriented function. Interestingly, part of the area is still used as an industrial site by one of the subsidiaries of the Luxembourgian-Dutch conglomerate ArcelorMittal, one of the main stakeholders in the region (before being a financial hub, Luxembourg was a well-established steel production centre).

The regenerated City of Science hosts the offices and educational facilities of the University of Luxembourg and several other buildings such as new national research facilities, banks, a shopping mall and several residential buildings as well as cultural spaces such as a museum adapted in the former furnaces of the steel mill, concert hall, etc. More information about the project can be found here: http://www.belval.lu/en/

The project is perhaps not the most advanced example of urban redevelopment of a former industrial area. However, it shows clearly the urban potentials of industrial sites located nearby urbanized areas. The City of Science in Luxembourg is an interesting exepirement of a mixed-use development in a former heavy-industry area. In a small scale, perhaps, a city of science could be imagined in a city like Luleå, which, not without controversies, apires to transition its economy from a steel and iron ore manufacturing centre in to one of  the leading knowledge cities in the nordic arctic region (Pictures by A. Rizzo, 2015).