6. Advantages and disadvantages of large batches. Future issues - Jacques Lucan

Urban Development Trends: Macro-Lots and Plots
📌 The current trend in urbanism is moving away from traditional parcels towards the island (îlot) as the basic unit of operation, often resulting in macro-lots.
🏗️ A macro-lot is defined as an island where different programs (social housing, offices, private housing, facilities) are deeply interwoven such that none can be easily separated.
🏙️ Contemporary city form is characterized by "plots"—separated, vertical buildings on relatively small plots, often referred to as totems (e.g., projects in Boulogne and Paris Rive Gauche).
📉 This fragmentation leads to a fractioned landscape where it is very difficult to ensure optimal solar orientation for all housing units within a single plot structure.

Challenges in Contemporary Urban Projects
🏠 Larger plots tend towards greater density, sometimes resulting in designs featuring internal courtyards (courettes), which recall outdated typologies and often lead to poorly lit interior spaces (e.g., ZAC Claude Bernard).
❓ The highly interwoven nature of these macro-lots raises critical questions about mutability and future adaptability; demolition or substitution becomes extremely complicated when programs are inextricably linked.
🔩 A necessary condition for building mutability is moving away from reinforced concrete load-bearing walls, which are common in French housing construction, requiring collaboration with construction companies.
🛑 There is a risk of returning to dangerous vertical urbanism and megastructures (like those seen in the 1960s/70s at Olympiades or Noisy-le-Grand), which proved to be unmanageable and costly for public finances.

Critique of Megastructures and Public Space
🏘️ Modern integrated projects (like Montpellier or Nantes' Tripode) often rest on a single parking basement/plinth (socle), creating a suspended garden or a garden on a slab, which may not function well socially due to the complexity of access and differing residential needs.
📉 Larger co-ownership structures result in higher maintenance charges, potentially leading to situations where owners cannot afford upkeep, requiring public intervention (as seen in Argenteuil), and inhibiting property sales.
⚖️ The focus on architectural diversity, often emphasized by public authorities, can inadvertently lead to a cityscape lacking community or commonality between buildings, resulting in isolated "islands" lacking cohesive urban fabric.
🚧 Public spaces and private areas should maintain continuity to avoid creating cities defined by elevated podiums and inaccessible bases, even if these structures are cheaper to build.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ The trend toward macro-lots featuring deeply interwoven programs severely complicates future adaptability and mutation of urban areas.
➡️ A major constructive hurdle is the continued reliance on reinforced concrete load-bearing walls, which must be abandoned for genuinely mutable buildings.
➡️ Be cautious of current architectural trends celebrating complex integrability, as historical parallels (1960s megastructures) show these often lead to long-term financial and management disasters.
➡️ Public authorities in large cities have the power to impose high standards, but they must question whether the standards they enforce (like hyper-diversity or complex integration) are the right ones for long-term urban health.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Feb 04, 2026, 02:19 UTC