Another tale of large-scale urban planning: The quandaries of mobility into and out of Campus Belval

This fall, it will be three years since major components of the University of Luxembourg – most notably the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FLSHASE) – have moved (and were moved) to Belval. The following note is a response to on-going debates about the calamities of getting there and back home, and how to improve this endeavour. My aim is to provide some background information from a geography and planning perspective, to reflect upon current means of service and policy, and to propose some ideas for future debates.(1)

As geographers and planners, we were actually dealing with Belval years before the move, for two reasons. Firstly, we have always had professional interest in Belval because it is a case of large-scale urban planning in a small country that has a huge impact on the built environment and, further, on the potential users of the site. Secondly, as members of the UL, we are all an integral part of this project, whether we want to be or not. Even now, years after the opening of the new Campus, we remain moving objects, now and on a daily basis. Thus, we as individuals must experiment with the promises and quandaries of mobility, actually a perfect indicator of the paradoxes of modern life.(2)

Recent events spurred extensive debates at the level of the UL, and this is another striking coincidence of different news items surfacing simultaneously, addressing a similar problem (see the last entry on Urbanization Unbound on real estate markets in Luxembourg). For some time now, we have known that the more the district is developed, the more parking  becomes a scarce, and thus expensive, resource across the whole site of Belval. This is an idea one could easily subscribe to and support in the name of sustainable development, if proper alternatives to the automobile were set in place. Yet, this is obviously not the case. So, we see an increasing number of commentaries and contributions made by members of the UL. A couple of Fridays ago, a colleague gave a perfect illustration of the problem based on his own travel itinerary and necessities. It was really an excellent insight into how complex, constrained, and costly the apparently simple travel from A to B can be. Others chimed in too, adding more convincing evidence of this, and confirming what we have actually known for a while.

Empirically evident are also the frequent breakdowns of the train system, the major transit connector to and from Belval and a second cause for concern. The last major incident happed on Monday, 4th June, in the late afternoon, when five (!) subsequent trains from Belval to the City where cancelled – without any (!) notice given to passengers, neither on site, nor on the App, nowhere. No replacement buses were organised. Passengers were simply left on the platform for the next train. However, the problem is more complex than simply being an issue of trains out of order. It deserves some explanation and context.(3) 

So… What’s the problem here?

Belval is/was envisioned as a highly acclaimed reconversion of a former brownfield site into a Science City. Since it is situated somehow isolated from the rest of the City of Esch-sur-Alzette (and the connectivity to Belvaux/Sanem only slowly improving), the question of how to provide good and sustainable access to the site was one of the key challenges raised very early on. With the installment of Gare Belval-Université – some of us may recall the pomp and circumstance when the Grand Duke opened the station – a supposedly convenient and sustainable solution had been found that would suit everyone and everything: It would be good for users, the urban setting, and the environment. Access to trains would even allow the mobility system to be based on a so-called modal split that devotes 40% of daily trips to public transit, and only 60% to the private automobile. It seemed like a revolution for the otherwise heavily car-oriented Luxembourg. 

However, a couple of issues were overlooked when the promise of sustainable mobility to and out of Belval was made. Some of these issues are systemic, so they are difficult to change. Simply speaking, every trip made by an individual from home to work represents a chain that has two ends: origin and destination. While Belval as a destination seems well accessible, one has to accept that the origin from which staff and students start their journey is widely dispersed across the country and the Greater Region. It would therefore take much more than the usual means of building fast and reliable service on major transport routes to make the site properly accessible. We would need more or less flexible feeder-services that complement the main lines, in order to keep travel times within a reasonable limit. And, we would need a good local setting for bikes, scooters, and pedestrians.

At the moment, none of that is sufficiently provided. Instead, we have a run-down train service, which has huge problems in ensuring the mere business as usual, not to speak of significant improvements. Feeder lines are rare or hardly adjusted to the new locale. Those that do exist (such as the 306-Bus from Trier to Belval) are often stuck in motorway traffic. Buses 202/203 from the city serve the steel mills, not the Campus – welcome to the post-industrial age. After Belvaux was turned to a major construction site this spring, local buses stopped serving the Campus, adding another 900m walk alongside crowded street traffic to our daily journey. Local conditions for cyclists, such as those coming from Esch or taking the long way from the Luxembourg City (yes, some of us indeed do this) are disappointing to say the least. And, this is the situation we are confronting three years after the move. As it stands now, we will have to wait for future concepts and fantasies to be developed, and meanwhile simply struggle with the daily business as usual.

Admittedly, this is also the result of a lack of service-orientation that runs through the whole train and transit system, which if was implemented would not necessarily make the trains run more efficiently per se, but would at least make daily trips less painful and adventurous. Just to give one more recent example: in response to complaints about the train incidence at Gare Belval-Université in early June, the CFL provided a lengthy technical explanation of what had happened and why this had caused turmoil. However, we still haven’t received any measured explanation concerning why passengers weren’t informed about the incident, and why no advice whatsoever was given concerning alternative routes.

Problems are also related to the mere fact that Luxembourg is suffering under its own economic and demographic success. For a small country, a development that has exhibited a constant annual growth rate of GDP (2.5-4 per cent) for over a decade brings an enormous strain on infrastructure systems. This implies a huge challenge to the whole country: to government, planners, transport providers, and of course, to customers. One could certainly argue that Luxembourg is rather active in future mobility policies. The problem is simply that what we currently observe is more or less the trying to catch up with the past, and not a planning for the future. There are at least 20-30 years of road building, combined with an entrenched car culture and systematic neglect of rail & bus all coded into the country’s DNA, which is hard to change in one sweep. In this regard, the future has not even started at all, except on paper. Expanding the infrastructure goes necessarily at the cost of present users, who have to accept delays and cancellations, at least in the next while. And, the idea of a more balanced spatial development that brings the places of work and residence closer together is also difficult to imagine because the housing market is not in any order of health and that is not likely to improve soon. Thus, recommending that cross-border and distance commuters settle in Luxembourg is not the same as offering a serious alternative.

Also, Luxembourg’s business model is ultimately geographical by nature. The small country is not only – and almost accidentally – surrounded by larger neighbours that provide the labour pool for its expanding economy, but its wealth generation is also something that was established over the past century on the foundations of a clever evolution and likewise management of external relations. Thus, the spatial imprint of the small country is much larger than its surface area of 2,500+ km2. The key commodity traded here is flows. These include flows of all kinds, such as money, politics, data, knowledge, goods, services, and labour. The present and future of the small state is almost entirely about circulation (and its regulation), which is probably also illustrated by the next big shot of economic development: space resources. The forgotten issue is that this massive volume of circulation is underpinned in physical space, in infrastructure systems and arteries that ensure the seamless flows of all the items mentioned above. Even though the flow of money through the financial marketplace seems increasingly virtual, the enabling systems for operating a top services and financial industry location are necessarily material: One needs educated staff, offices, accessibility etc. A small country that emerged as the second largest hub for investment funds on the planet essentially relies on 1st class systems of all kinds, and given the poor performance of transit that we bemoan, there clearly remains a lot of work to do. 

Those are a few notes on the general and historical background of the current state of affairs in a nutshell.

The problem behind the problems

It is clear that the dilemma we are facing is really difficult to resolve, and far from being a quick fix. Some of the structural and systemic factors mentioned above seem almost inconceivable to change, and if change is indeed possible, then probably only in the mid- or long-term. Geography is yet impossible to alter, particularly since it is part of Luxembourg’s political economy, a.k.a. business model. The focus on extracting value from flows, based on external relations of the small country with the rest of the world will most likely remain in place for the foreseeable future. The economy is destined to grow further, otherwise one would put the established level of wealth and income at risk. While the government’s emphasis is on expanding and improving the various infrastructures, it is also clear that: a) this takes time to implement; and b) given the foreseen growth of GDP and employment, it may suffice for absorbing additional demand, but not for solving existing problems. Belval is also specific in this respect, as: a) recent policy frameworks such as MoDu 2.0 or the Plan Sectoriel Transport do not devote particular attention to Belval, even though the site is actually the most important new generator of transport demand in the country; and b) the foreseen degree of density in the urban design of Belval will bring more and more people to the site, while accessibility won’t improve in the short term and parking capacities will be further reduced in due course. This makes the issue even more pressing.

In this context, one would wish that the actors and institutions in charge begin rethinking the problem and concentrating on intelligent investments, rather than initiating large road and rail works that need years to come to fruition. Long-term infrastructure improvements are, of course, a vital component of mobility policy and therefore necessary. This is the case with the possible high-speed tram extension to Belval. However, it is predicted that this will  not be completed until 2035 at the earliest.(4) Do we really want to wait more than fifteen years for a proper means of transport? This is rather unpalatable; therefore, in parallel, one ought to introduce some small changes that can make a big difference – organizational measures that allow certain effects to materialize in the immediate term. Unfortunately, the regular habits of infrastructure provision focus on large-scale construction plans in order to catch up with growth. And, they need time and capacity to be wisely planned, balanced (between different aims and alternatives) and openly communicated, rather than rigidly executed. Particularly, all these measures require an enormous degree of integration, which is questioned by the country’s setting of institutional fragmentation (fragmentation between state and communes, among the communes, between the different transport modes, and policy subjects…). A coherent body of policies that tackle the complex assemblage of mobility problems and their inter-related causes is urgently needed so that a significant impact is achieved relatively soon.

What should we do? A few steps towards a new direction

1 For Belval, a ‘quick response’ transport demand management strategy is urgently needed.(5) Accessing Belval is a huge challenge, which should no longer be treated with the business-as-usual attitude of long-term infrastructure policy that we’ve seen so far and which doesn’t help us now. Instead, the mobility issue should become part of a dedicated process of introducing short-term means and measures to improve the situation now. Consequently, we need a transport demand management (TDM) plan that scans the problems and systematically develops alternatives, particularly those that may have the biggest effect in the shortest period of time. This could include a beta-version of a rapid bus network (BNHS) to which the existing RGTR could be developed in due course. A comprehensive programme to improve the accessibility of Belval by bike is urgently needed as well. And, it would be helpful if there could be more time to adapt to planned changes in parking regulations as they have direct and significant consequences on labour and their needs and expenses.

2 In the context of the first point, the UL and the other institutions in Belval should jointly create an employer’s mobility scheme. While the state and related bodies can’t be released from their prime responsibility of providing the proper means of mobility into and out of Belval, employers can make a significant contribution to resolving this dilemma. They represent a sufficient critical mass of staff, so one could do more in terms of providing a good data basis and promoting alternative means such as car-pooling, car-sharing and the like. Such lengths are definitely worth the joint effort. In addition, one could also think about accompanying measures such as promoting teleworking, at least for some staff members. The university and government should push forward the possibilities of digitalization at least for those sorts of activities that can be done remotely, where physical presence on Campus is not essential. Certainly, each member of the University could also contribute on his and her own to improve the situation. Not all road trips are essential and necessary. Not all drivers are captive and thus without alternatives. Not all seats in vehicles are occupied, so why not promote a more efficient use of capacity? The bitter truth is that there is no constitutional right for free parking, and we simply have to accept this if the Campus is ever going to be sustainable.

3 The mode of planning and communication with the users of Belval on the one hand, and development and political responsibilities on the other hand, deserve improving, striving for a more inclusive approach than what has been practiced so far. Modern planning textbooks consistently emphasise transparency and participation, commitment and creativity. Yet in contrast to what is taught in the literature, the majority of small states (to put it this way) tend to execute plans and programmes in rather orthodox ways. While this country’s infrastructure policy adopted for good reason a multi-modal and no longer car-oriented approach, its implementation still follows the tradition of the powerful, authoritative state. The related first (government) and second (sectoral planning, development, construction) order institutions still stick to top-down planning and implementation, particularly when it comes to third parties and customers. However, planning, building and infrastructure provision are increasingly understood as learning processes, based on a mutual exchange of what the problem is, what possible solutions could be (there are always alternatives), and how a careful decision-making could be organised. Don't we want to go there as well? Or, would we prefer the old fashion of the “godfather” planning ideal (Walter Siebel)?

4 There is one more reason why policy measures should be balanced more carefully: There is an issue concerning social equality when the cost of commuting is raised as a topic that effects everyone in similar ways. Losing 1,000 €/year for parking impacts each captive person differently because of wage differentials and the complexity of his/her family circumstances. Obviously, supporting an exogenous change is much easier for let’s say a male Luxembourgian professor who inherited a comfortable house close to Luxembourg city centre, than for a foreign female support staff, renting an apartment in a small town in Belgium, France or Germany. Deciding to work in Belval is the result of a complex trade-off between housing costs, transport costs, and travel time. Related decisions concerning where to live and where to work are made in long term. In turn, it is very complex to alter: relocating may mean the changing of schools, lower proximity to family networks, more stretched commuting for the partner, etc. Changing jobs may actually be easier.

So, the result of non-negotiable and socially undifferentiated policy may actually cause a much greater turnover of some particular staff, typically support female support staff with kids and less flexible hours. And, obviously frontaliers are hit the hardest, when one considers who is primarily affected and what their average salary is. As a consequence, it is difficult to imagine any transport management plan or parking scheme that is socially blind.(6) Given the sometimes rigid and inflexible ways a policy scheme is implemented (such as the 60:40 modal split) demonstrates the lack of understanding – and power playing – by particular (Luxembourgian?) elites vis-a-vis other workers, who are typically cross-border, often female, and with kids. Overall, a positive step forward would actually be to add some granularity in the policy, typically a fare system that recognizes the availability of public transport at residence, the category of staff, and their family status.

5 What could institutions such as the UL do by themselves in order to tackle the problem? There is certainly a need for education and creating expertise in mobility management at the level of larger enterprises and institutions. Apart from some notable exceptions (among them the UL), there is little knowledge in the country concerning company mobility management, except for perhaps the expertise in providing XXL-parking lots that cater to SUVs in underground garages... Corporate policy could become a fundamental element of TDM solutions as discussed above. There is also an urgent need to collect data about demand (scatter and door-to-door trips) as well as supply (reliability, punctuality).  Instead of collecting single experiences, it is important to show the global picture. In past years, data was in fact collected through surveys. These should now be repeated in order to analyze how the users have responded to the palate of transport offers and resources. Setting up a mobility plan would be a first step, but it won’t be trivial. As members of the UL experienced in developing the transport policy plan at the University, we know that this comes with many challenges, and that it requires developing alternatives and what-if scenarios.

To sum up: 

While the actual debate about parking seems to have gained momentum only recently, the issue of how to best plan proper access to Belval is not new. Indeed, this note was inspired by comments made by individuals at the UL concerning the current malaise: Listening to single voices is clearly important (!), as it provides an empirically grounded view of the problem at stake. However, individual responses do not signal the ultimate solution, as politics need to consider the public good. In this context, two peculiar issues in the country’s policy and planning traditions must be reflected on, addressed, and overcome: Firstly, the tradition of asking the government (or the mayor …) to take care of particular issues that result from very special interests (Partikularinteressen) needs to stop. This goes usually at the cost of more coherent overall strategies and the common good. Secondly, there is a tradition in Luxembourg of sticking to large-scale urban projects, which are costly, risky, hard to integrate and often subject to delays. While real-life implementation of small but useful steps in the right direction is challenging in the details (and less glossy and therefore harder to sell to the public), policy makers are tempted to go for the big thing, the polished technical solution. This is also the case in Belval: Options such as rail, super-bus, or now fast-tram were already promised and calculated, and the former two have already been rejected. Should we now wait for another 15-20 years of large-scale infrastructure planning to materialize, while we already know how difficult the planning and political process can be in a small country? We need an open and constructive debate with all parties involved on how to improve the situation now, as soon as possible, not in two decades.

Markus Hesse

Index

(1) Many thanks to Geoffrey, Francesco and Katja for reading, commenting and providing inspiration, and also – as always – to Connie for editing. The responsibility for this remains of course solely mine.

(2) Sheller, M. & J. Urry (2016). Mobilizing the new mobilities paradigm. Applied Mobilities 1(1), 10-25.

(3) This note focuses on the core of the transport problem, while layers such as social cohesion, identity and the like remain excluded.

(4) These days Minister Bausch presented a high-speed tram from Luxembourg City to Belval to be built by 2035. Such news is good for providing headlines, but won’t provide relief now. Given the increasing frequency of press releases on tram extension in the capital city and beyond, one must have the impression that the tram is becoming primarily a political vehicle, rather than an effective means of resolving pressing problems.

(5) See for example: Black, C. & E. Schreffler (2010). Understanding transport demand management and its role in delivery of sustainable urban transport. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board (2163), 81-88.

(6) There are manifold societal and equity dimensions inherent to mobility and transport, which call for a more than technical treatment of this subject matter; see e.g. Lucas, K. (2012). Transport and social exclusion: Where are we now? Transport policy 20, 105-113.

Combien ça coûte? A note on land, money, property & profit (Part I)

Sometimes it's really striking how random co-incidences of news items surface on one's screen simultaneously. As geographers and planners, we’re actually well aware of the unholy alliance of land and money, of property and profit, which is the subject matter of this blog entry. A huge body of literatures, both from theory and practice, reveals the prominence and ever-shifting nature of this relationship. Its significance for cities, people and urban life has increased dramatically in recent times, based on a weird assemblage of capital flows, speculative attitudes, and both absence and presence of governance.(1) Last week, such things came together quite nicely in the case of our capital, Luxembourg City, which is a small (roughly 117,000 inhabitants) but powerful economic centre, as the following four short vignettes may illustrate.

First, as to the more generic if not theoretical background of this issue, Robin & Brill explain why urban development that is grounded in private real estate particularly succeeds in times of financialisation, and how, in turn, the latter has increased the pressure on urban processes.(2) (Thank you, Tom Becker, for the hint!) Real-estate players are not only extracting value from transforming and trading urban property, but have become important “transfer agents in the global flow of urban models”.(3) Besides accelerating unaffordability in cities, this phenomenon helps mobilize different conceptions of what the city should be about, blueprints of which can then be found on display at real-estate fairs such as MIPIM, in Cannes, or EXPO-REAL, in Munich. This peculiar politics of land and territory is sometimes difficult to detect, as it is often hidden under the surface of the smart, competitive or sustainable city. Only accidentally do such issues become apparent and garner public attention.

This leads us to the second case in this context, which was raised by the on-line magazine www.reporter.lu, in Luxembourg, at the end of May.(4) One of the cover stories addressed the high-end property prices in the city’s "Oberstadt" – indeed, it is called ‘upper city’ (5) – a small area that was once the trading centre and political hotspot for the capital city and country. In its central parts, it now represents an assemblage of three different types of land uses: i) it is an overly polished retail space, with an increasing number of luxury chains; ii) it is composed of various commodified spaces with ascribed historical and heritage significance, attracting tourist flows (e.g. Place Guillaume II, Place d’Armes, the Casemates, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, etc.); and iii) it is a space of political power embodied by the Grand Duke’s urban palace, the National Chamber, and the Town Hall. Roughly 3,500 people live there on a territory of about 105 hectares – that is, the Oberstadt houses only 3% of the city’s overall population on little more than 2% of its territory. So far, the Oberstadt retains significant symbolic value and is considered to be high, just as the business opportunities offered for bars, restaurants and selected retail outlets are.

Figure 1: Luxembourg City, Square Marché-aux-Poissons /
rue Sigefroi 2008 (Source: Cayambe, CC-BY-SA 3.0).

While a significant portion of the built fabric remains unused (much of the upper stories above the retail shops located on the ground floors of the picturesque buildings are empty), the Oberstadt has recently become an enormously promising spot for land speculation, development and rent-seeking adventures. Reporter.lu reveals how the prices for luxury condos in two flagship projects have risen to twice the average level in the leading districts of the city. Flats are now coming on the market for up to 22-25,000 €/m2 – a significant re-urbanization of money, which was preferably invested there, ahead of McMansions on the periphery (not in the city centre). The institutional setting behind these profitable investments is based on securisation, a risky investment practice that was legalised in Luxembourg in 2004. The related investment funds are officially unregulated and targeted by a variety of customers, some of them suspicious of money laundering. Transparency, concerning who the concrete persons involved are, is limited. And, the level of taxation seems to be rather low, particularly where off-shore addresses are included, which seems to be the case here as well. Among the future owners of the flats are so-called High-Net Worth Individuals, super-rich business people, and industrialists who are supposedly quite international: “Europeans who lead an international life and are quite often on the road”, as we learn from the magazine.(6)

Third, another key site in Luxembourg City where the alliance of land and money is breeding profit, undisturbed - or even mastered - by politics and planning, is the yet brownfield “Place de l’Etoile” (Star Place) (figure 2). It is situated west of the city centre, where sub-urban and cross-border commuter flows meet the office enclaves of the Boulevard Royal and adjacent neighbourhoods, including the Limpertsberg area that was hit hard by the reconversion of flats to offices. On the 26th of May, media coverage revealed that Etoile won’t be hosting another mixed-use space of shopping, offices and apartments, as it was planned until now.(7) Instead, it is now destined to provide a massive injection of hundreds of luxury apartments. The key player in this respect is ADIA, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund that is owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). ADIA has been active in Luxembourg for some time now. It is, for example, part of the first mixed-use flagship project Hamilius that is currently under construction in the central city (see former blog posts here,  here and here). ADIA had bought the approximately two-hectare piece of land at Place de l’Etoile, in 2016, for a reported amount of 150 million Euros. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, it was, “one of the largest land transactions ever made in Luxembourg”. ADIA not only provided the investment, but it will keep the apartments in its own portfolio and bring them on the market for rent. This is obviously more lucrative than renting out office space would be – and it is clear indication that the housing market will further rocket to a dimension that is entirely unaffordable for the average renter or buyer.

Figure 2: Luxembourg City, Place de l’Etoile 2017 

(Source: Zinneke, CC-BY-SA 4.0_lu)

The story behind the potentially new prospect for Etoile (official confirmation is still pending) is as delicate as many other land deals in the city are. Etoile is understood to be the terrain that was kept vacant the longest in the capital city, and speculation was probably the most important reason for this. However, the art of properly phasing investments and getting them nested in the local realm is always accompanied by complex processes of political decision-making and urban planning. In the case of Etoile, it seems a strange mix  has made it possible: a mix of both governance presence and absence, the active channeling of money flows through the complexities of rules and regulations, and the deliberate abdication of any substantial claims about affordability, social issues, urban design qualities and the like.

Fourth and finally, we can situate these observations in the context of comparisons on a broader scale. In light of the above, it is absolutely no surprise that Luxembourg City popped up in the 2018 edition of the Swiss UBS-report on Prices and Earnings in 77 top metropolises of the world, which was also published last week.(8) It ranks 3rd, 5th and 15th in terms of earnings, purchasing power, and price level, respectively. Cities of comparison are all major economic centres of the world, most capital cities of both leading and emerging economies, and also second-tier cities such as Frankfurt, Germany; Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland; or Lyon, France. The cities surveyed were labeled by the authors as ‘global cities’. Luxembourg City, probably the smallest of all the sample cases, is slightly cheaper than Paris, more expensive than cities such as Seoul, Dublin, or Brussels, but at the same time, one of the very richest.(9) The mismatch between size and function or power looks impressive, but it is also associated with an increasing amount of conflict and tension. While the setting is increasingly global and prices are rising, the middle-and lower classes are running into problems – most notably in terms of housing, for which even the higher average earnings no longer suffice. Thus, there are certain costs associated with grooming a small city as a hotspot in world’s economy. Yet, for various reasons, the capability to respond to these problems seems limited. Money (both as a resource and as a source of greed) is only one but rather powerful limiting factor here; others are simply successful lobbying, overall ideologies, or institutional inertia. This is seldom so clear as it was last week, when different news agencies reported on the peculiar links between land and profit.

Markus Hesse

Watch out for Part II of this entry that will follow next week, briefly discussing: what the lessons learned from these cases are, and what the takeaway could be in more general terms; for properly interpreting what financialisation means for urban development and policy; and, for estimating the ramifications for practice, such as policy and planning. 

Notes

1) Just to name a few and recent sources: Halbert, L./Attuyer, K. (2016). "Introduction: The financialisation of urban production: Conditions, mediations and transformations." Urban Studies 53(7), 1347–1361; Madden, D./Marcuse, P. (2016). In Defense of Housing. The Politics of Crisis. London/Brooklyn: Verso; van Loon, J. & Aalbers, M. B. (2017). "How real estate became ‘just another asset class’: The financialization of the investment strategies of Dutch institutional investors." European Planning Studies 25(2), 221-240.

2) Robin, E. & F. Brill (2018) ‘The global politics of an urban age: creating 'cities for all' in the age of financialisation’. palgrave communications 4:3, (DOI: 10.1057/s41599-017-0056-6)

3) Robin & Brill 2018, p. 2

4) Schmit, L. (2018) Der Trend zu Luxusimmobilien im Stadtzentrum. Neue Schlossherren im Stadtzentrum. 24 May 2018, with updates on 26 May 2018 (https://www.reporter.lu/luxusimmobilien-neue-schlossherren-im-stadtzentrum/)

5) The leftish German singer Franz-Josef Degenhardt had once put it as follows: „Spiel nicht mit den Schmuddelkindern, sing nicht ihre Lieder, geh doch in die Oberstadt, mach’s wie deine Brüder.“ (Please don’t hang around with the street urchins, don’t sing their tales, follow your brothers and go to the upper town), F.-J. Degenhardt, 1965 

6) Schmit 2018, p. 4

7) Trapp, W. (2018) Ausverkauf der Stadt? „déi lenk“ wehrt sich gegen neue Pläne. Tageblatt 121, 26./27.5.2018, p. 48.

8) UBS (2018) Prices and Earnings 2018. https://www.ubs.com/microsites/prices-earnings/en/

9) This global position of a small money enclave and political capital is also subject of our GLOBAL research project, which will reveal its first findings soon. Related conference appearances are foreseen this Summer for GCEG, Cologne, IGU Urban, Montréal, and RGS/IBG, Cardiff.

Keep off the grass - even if the grass is not grass

1. Some guerrilla commentaries about Campus greening. Someone has a sense of humour! 

1. The Large Scale Urban Planning of Nature

The ‘Cité des Sciences’ (Science City) in Belval – where our new University Campus was created on a brownfield site more or less from scratch (Becker/Hesse 2013) – is a template case of large-scale urban project policy (Leick 2016). In successive steps over a time span of roughly twenty years, 120 hectares of land are under development following a layout prescribed in a masterplan and commercial concept that leave little space for improvisation: Return on (public and private) investment is the key objective here. There are several large-scale projects in the small but rich nation-state of Luxembourg, developed in the context of a small but rich country, where stakes and ambitions are high (as are the buildings), but a sort of flawed urbanization and unintended improvisation is the outcome both in terms of settlement patterns and planning policy.

The country has a certain tradition with huge development sites, most notably visible in the case of the European district on the Plateau Kirchberg, formally located on the grounds of the Capital City, but implemented on behalf of the central government. On a massive 365-hectare plot of land, the office town stretches across both sides of the seven-kilometer John F. Kennedy Avenue like a city within a city. And, it is meanwhile part of a narrative of roughly 60 years of large-scale urban development, that includes its own rounds of upgrading and urbanization over the past three decades.

While Kirchberg struggles to fulfil the desire of becoming an urban environment, Belval inhibits respective hopes at the get go. Different from the strangely composed assemblage of office buildings, commercial sites, and pieces of infrastructure on Kirchberg that are garnished with empty slots in between, the case of Belval marks a new approach to big projects in the Grand Duchy: Belval is supposed to be about coherence and sustainability, attempting to mimic elements of the clichéd European city as a dense, mixed and quality space for everybody, designed to serve different purposes.

It is certainly too early to assess Belval in this particular context, but what is becoming increasingly clear is that density also has a certain downside (Affolderbach et al. 2018; Carr et al. 2015; Caruso et al. 2015). There are disadvantages and pitfalls of agglomeration that have to be taken into account, and dense/compact neighbourhoods need to be steered cautiously and wisely. (This, btw, is a planning approach rarely practiced in this country).

2. Promotional leaflet distributed by le Fonds Belval, 2018

Green space is one essential component of this debate. How can the dense and compact city ensure that living conditions do not suffer as a result of the sheer mass of built fabric? Is skyscraper living – as density is understood in other cities – in fact, healthy and equitable? There are studies that demonstrate otherwise (See older blog post). How can the creation of heat islands be avoided? This is an issue that may increase in importance and relevance due to climate change, as average temperatures and the likelihood of extreme weather events increase. Ignoring these debates (and coveting their profits), developers are rather consistently clear in that, firstly, density provides sustainability and thus contributes to solving a range of related problems, such as accessibility and circulation. Secondly, corporate PR suggests Belval offers a greenish, if not truly green setting (fig. 2).

3. Mastering nature contracted to Vulkatec

A closer inspection of both the grounds and aerial photographs of Belval may reveal a different picture (fig. 3). For various reasons, most land had to be sealed. Greenness was mainly provided on the roofs of buildings, which unfortunately has not yet really materialized on the ground surface, where residents, consumers and workers tend to interact and make use of public spaces. It is also controversially discussed whether one can adequately compensate for the lack of green space on site by providing a park situated almost a kilometer away – which is the argument brought forth by the developer.

2. Our solution: Let’s redesign and re-engage with natures!

4. Stadionbrache Hardturm, Zurich - A community meeting point and co-operative process

Yet, despite the grand plans and high hopes for what the Cité des Sciences’ will be, Belval is already a lived space, or in Lefebvre's (1974) words, a 'social space'. While Agora expects  a population of 8000 someday and 25000 work places, currently, there are over 2000 residents, roughly 5000 workers, and approximately 5,300 students on site (Agora 2018). And, some of these are already actively trying to generate a sense of place and a feeling of community. Whether this is about calls for improved publicly funded infrastructures (such as transport) or services (such as physicians, pharmacists, or postal services), some are trying to influence social space through nature. Urban gardening in Belval, organized by a local transition group, is one such example. Questions orbit around central dilemmas of who gets to style what nature and for what reason – debates that were not foreseen in the masterplan.

To step back from Belval and Luxembourg for a moment, one can draw a comparison by way of examples of urban gardening in Zurich. In Zurich West (District 5), on a derelict football stadium one can find a little paradise, called (simply) Stadionbrache Hardturm (fig. 4). Officially approved and funded by the City of Zurich, an association has the right to manage activities on the site until redevelopment plans are finalised. Over the past seven years, a rather extensive urban garden has emerged. While the specific activities and actors change through time (a recent list of individual projects can be found here), currently, the projects range from a community kitchen, a climbing wall, bee production, a kinder garden, and a skater park – in fact, the skaters in the skater park were the original initiators. (We have some older posts on Lux skaters too.)

5. Urban Gardening orchestrated by the SBB

The variety that can be found in this rather improvised and co-operative garden stands in stark contrast to the urban garden at Zurich's main station. Immediately upon arrival in Zurich by train one is met with the large-scale redevelopment site orchestrated by the SBB, called the Europaallee (picture), touted as "Zurich's newest district" of tower development for office, retail, and residential uses. Following this model, practices of urban gardening are restricted to 2 m flower beds distributed across a concrete pedestrian zone. The SBB also capitalize on the notion of urban gardening as a community experience by advertising workshops (fig 5.). In some respects, one might argue that urban gardening has reached the mainstream. But this, first, awakens debates about how to translate alternative practices to the mainstream without them being co-opted or losing their original meaning or intention (Carr/ Affolderbach 2014). It also raises questions about the techno-nature fantasies promoted by developers. 

The authors of this entry are the last ones who would reduce urban gardening down to these two scenarios: indeed, urban gardening is a vast and old subject in urban studies as it and otherwise general forms of food production in urban settings has taken on many forms, organizational structures, ideologies, and objectives, over the decades (and centuries!). However, the two opposing examples in Zurich offer some food for thought in terms of the role of institutions in greening urban space, which are cautionary tales that we can apply to Belval.

Returning to ‘Cité des Sciences’ in Belval, the Gaart Belval is a community garden project that aims at creating a green space open for everyone living or working in Belval. Located between the University’s cafeteria, the red Building and the new library, it will offer a place to let the soul breathe, work together or alone, and enjoy lunch in the sun. The asbl is the first local participatory initiative in Belval and works in close cooperation with the municipality of Esch and the CIGL, as well as the regional chapter of the Movement Ecologique and the Transition Town movement. Info: gaartbelval@gmail.com

The association aims to harness the positive effects of engagement with the natural environment: a place to eases stress, establish relationships and a sense of belonging, and care for each other and the environment. Working in a garden together side-by-side, be it silently, or in stimulating exchange, Gaart Belval aims to foster a sense of community.

The Gaart Belval is also an opportunity for the transition town movement in south Luxemburg to mobilize the resident and highly multicultural network, as it has served an important integrating function where people develop projects to work together, side-by-side, in hands-on projects that serve their community. The group recognizes that, as urban gardens have become popular in cities all over the world, they have become a place where immigrants and newcomers can find and develop shared experiences. They have even become something that they expect to find in a new place, not just as a leisure activity, but as a form participation in their social and build environment.

The benefits of a community garden on the Cité des Sciences go beyond the usual arguments for green and diverse urban spaces. In Belval, people from all over the world are working next to each other in highly specialized fields, while very few of them are actually living in Belval, let alone staying after work. Many only spend but a couple of seasons on campus and soon move on to other places. By the time students have understood how things are working here, they already have to think about the subject for their thesis and need to buckle down and focus on their dissertation.

Being part of a community garden project helps integration, and facilitates a means of connecting to Belval and feeling a sense of belonging. As people work side by side, networks emerge, and ideas are created and shared. Getting our hands dirty together during lunch break, or enjoying a beer in the garden in the evening sun contributes to an inspiring study work environment. Gaart Belval is an opportunity to develop the Cité des Sciences in a way that not only harnesses the motivation of local users of the space, but also enables a sense of connection and belonging.

by

Markus Hesse, Jan-Tobias Doerr, Constance Carr

References

Affolderbach, J., Schulz, C., Preller, B. (2018.) Luxembourg: A Policy-Led Approach Caught Between Green Growth and Affordable Housing. In: Affolderbach/Schulz (eds.) Green Building Transitions: Regional Trajectories of Innovation in Europe, Canada and Australia. pp 159-188.

Agora (2018) Belval - Market Figures 2017. Accessed May 31, 2018. Available here: http://www.agora.lu/fileadmin/AGORA/user_upload/06-presse/17_03_10_Presentation_Market_figures__Belval_FR.PDF

Becker, T., Hesse, M. 2013 “Building a Sustainable University from Scratch: Anticipating the Urban, Regional and Planning Dimension of the ‘Cité des Sciences Belval’, in Esch-sur-Alzette and Sanem, Luxembourg” In König, A. (ed.) Regenerative Sustainable Development Of Universities And Cities The Role of Living Laboratories. Edward Elgar.

Carr, C., Affolderbach, J. (2014) Rescaling sustainability? Local opportunities and scalar contradictions. Local Environment, 19(6), 567-571.

Carr, C., Becker, T., Evrard, E., Nienaber, B., Roos, U., McDonough, E, Hesse, M., Krueger, R. (2015) Raising sustainability/Mobilising sustainability: Why European sustainable urban development initiatives are slow to materialise/Territorial cohesion as a vehicle of sustainability/Sustainable urban development and the challenge of global air transport nodes and spatial integration/Distorted density: Where developers and non-governmental organizations on sustainable urban development agree/Overcoming politics with markets? The co-production of sustainable development in urban and regional planning. Planning Theory & Practice, 16(1), 99-125.

Caruso, G., Cavailhès, J., Peeters, D., Thomas, I., Frankhauser, P., Vuidel, G. (2015)."Greener and larger neighbourhoods make cities more sustainable! A 2D urban economics perspective" Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 54, 82-94.

Lefebvre, H. (Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith) (1992) The Production of Space. Wiley-Blackwell.

Leick, Annick, "Kleines Land, Große Projekte. Diskurse, Praktiken und soziale Welten im Entscheidungs- und Planungsprozess der Großvorhaben Belval und Kirchberg in Luxemburg" thesis successfully defended at University of Luxembourg, 2016.

GDPR - Info for subscribers to this blog

If you subscribed to this blog by adding your name to the Feedburner list in the right-hand column of this blog, then you will receive this announcement as a personal email as well.

We can affirm that the list is administered by feedburner.com, which is owned by Google. Information about feedburner and its user conditions is available here. As editors of this blog, we use the services offered by Feedburner to send an email (such as this) to subscribers on the list every time the blog is updated with a new post. Beyond Feedburner/Google, the only people who have access to this list are Markus Hesse and myself (Constance Carr). When we open up our Feedburner account, we see only a list of emails and the date when the subscriber activated his/her subscription to the blog.  Neither Markus nor myself share this data with anyone else, nor do we use it for any further purposes than to update you with new posts.

Please, know that if you ever want to stop receiving these blog updates, you can, at any time, send a personal email to me, Constance Carr, or Markus Hesse, and we will personally remove you from the list.  

An event in Zurich on housing co-ops and cooperative living

Carr was invited this week to join a panel discussion on housing co-ops at an event organised by the INURA Zurich Institute, MAZI, Nethood, and Netcommons, entitled,

"Cooperative housing and beyond - The right to the hybrid city" 

In addition to tours of Swiss housing projects, Kraftwerk1 and Kalkbreite, and a collective pizza-making session, it will be two days of discussions about ongoing projects, current challenges as well as future possibilities related to self-management and collective decision-making, and alternative arrangements in housing.

Program details here.

Evelyne Stoll, IBLA, May 8, Campus Limpertsberg, BS 0.03, 19:00

When it comes to sustainability and sustainable development, food systems,especially at the farm level show great deficiencies. We are currently facing several environmental challenges, such as greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, soil erosion and soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, on which food production can have substantial impacts. Socio-economic issues, such as poor labour conditions and financial viability of the farm, also play an important role with respect to the sustainability of food production. However, the question arises, what sustainable food production is. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has published the SAFA (Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems) Guidelines in an attempt to define sustainability in the food and agriculture systems and to provide a universal framework for the sustainability assessment of these sectors. The SAFA-Guidelines structure sustainability in 4 dimensions (Good Governance, Ecological Integrity, Economic Resilience, Social Wellbeing), 21 themes and 58 sub-themes. For each sub-theme, an absolute objective describes the target state of sustainability. The FiBL (Forschungsinstitut für Biologischen Landbau, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) has developed the SMART (Sustainability Monitoring and Assessment RouTine)-Farm Tool to operationalize the SAFA Guidelines: the tool models the sustainability of a farm with respect to the 58 SAFA sub-themes. This is an indicator based assessment of the level of goal achievement.

In this class, we will look at the possibilities of sustainability assessment in the food system, with focus on the indicator-based assessment using the SMART-Farm tool. We will discuss the benefits and limitations of such indicator-based assessments and will broach the challenge of defining internationally comparable indicators that are still applicable in diverse local conditions.

Evelyne Stoll (MRes) studied Environmental Sciences for her Bachelor in Science degree at the University of Aberdeen (UK) before attending the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh (UK) for her Master of Research in Environmental Analysis and Assessment. After her studies, she worked for INCOTEC Sweden AB in their testing facilities in Uppsala (S) before returning to Luxemburg. Since 2013, she works in the research and development department of IBLA and has been responsible, among other projects, for the winter cereal variety trials and the European Core Organic Project „COBRA“. More recently, the focus of her work was on the holistic sustainability assessment of agricultural holdings, namely using the SMART (Sustainability Monitoring and Assessment RouTine)-Farm Tool. This topic will be further deepened in the project “SustEATable – Integrated analysis of dietary patterns and agricultural practices for sustainable food systems in Luxembourg” (2018-2021).

Special Issue by Hesse/Siedentop "Suburbanisation and Suburbanisms" is out!

Hesse and Siedentop's special issue of Raumforschung und Raumordnung on Suburbs and Suburbanisation in the European context is now out in hard copy (Volume 76, Issue 2, April 2018)

Entries include:

Hesse, M. /Siedentop, S. "Suburbanisation and Suburbanisms – Making Sense of Continental European Developments"

This paper provides a brief overview of recent developments and debates concerned with suburbanisation in continental Europe. While current discourses in urban research and practice still focus on processes of reurbanisation and the gentrification of inner-city areas, suburbia continues to exist and thrive. Depending on the definition applied, suburban areas still attract a large share of in-migration and employment growth in cities of the developed countries. Given that popular meta-narratives on suburbia and suburbanisation are often spurred by, or refer to, North American suburban studies, we take a different perspective here, one based on continental European trajectories of development in and across city-regional areas that are considered to be suburban, and on social processes that are associated with suburbanisation (suburbanisms). Thus, we aim to avoid a biased understanding of suburbia as a spatial category, which is often considered mono-functional, non-sustainable, or in generic decline. Instead, we observe that suburban variety is huge, and the distinction between urban core and fringe seems to be as ambiguous as ever. The paper, which also introduces the theme of this special issue of “Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning”, bundles our findings along four themes: on suburbia as a place of economic development, on the shifting dynamics of housing between core and fringe locales, on the life-cyclic nature of suburbanisation, and on strategies for redevelopment. Finally, we discuss certain topics that may deserve to be addressed by future research, particularly on the European variant of suburbanisation and suburbs.

Carr, C. /McDonough, E. "Integrative Planning of Post-suburban Growth in the Glatt Valley (Switzerland)"

This paper addresses conditions of post-suburban urbanisation. Our empirical base is drawn from observations of integration initiatives in the region of the Glatt Valley, a rather undefined area extending from the City of Zurich towards the airport and spreading over a number of small municipalities. Under growth pressure, municipalities are coordinating housing, transportation, and economic activity, and this is generating new post-suburban forms. To understand these processes, qualitative methods were used, relevant documents surveyed, and conversational interviews with actors in the area conducted. A process of infrastructure consolidation was observed, which moved towards integrating functional pathways and optimising capital accumulation, and attracting and catering for business development and high-income earners. To date, the region has proved to be diverse and dynamic, while also furthering certain modes of fragmentation and social stratification. The results reveal post-suburban forms that are place specific and path dependent insofar as they are driven by particular arrangements of governance that emphasise a certain mode of integrative planning. This form of post-suburban growth is also producing new forms of fragmentation.

Frank, S. "Inner-City Suburbanization – no Contradiction in Terms. Middle-Class Family Enclaves are Spreading in the Cities"

The rapid emergence and spread of new housing quarters that specifically address middle-class families is a striking feature of current urban development. Despite being located in or near the city centres, many of these ‘family enclaves’ display social and physical characteristics that so far have been firmly associated with suburban living. Against this background, the purpose of this article is twofold. The first objective is to argue from a theoretical perspective that the notion of ‘inner-city suburbanization’ is appropriate and helpful to capture the hybrid and contradictory nature of these projects as well as of many of the current socio-spatial developments in Western metropolitan regions. For this purpose, the paper draws on newer approaches that conceive of (urban or suburban) ways of living as independent of specific (urban or suburban) spaces or places. The second issue, based on empirical research, is then to sketch the essential qualities of newly built middle-class family enclaves and to highlight their propagation as a major characteristic of urban transformation in Germany. Their continuing expansion is interpreted as an expression and catalyst of ongoing processes of inner-city suburbanization. It is asserted that suburbanism has not only made its mark on the outskirts of the cities but is increasingly conquering growing parts of the inner cities as well.

Hila, M. /Legras, S. /Cavailhès, J. "Peri-Urbanisation: Between Residential Preferences and Job Opportunities"

The debate on the nature and state of peri-urban development in Europe is dynamic. While residents and their residential preferences have long been identified as strong drivers of the process of peri-urbanisation, other influences have also been discussed, such as the supply side of the housing market or job opportunities for residents. This paper analyses the population and job growth trends in the last five decades of 230 urban areas in mainland France. The results show that the pattern of peri-urban development of all the large and medium cities of the country have strong common characteristics. In particular, the areas around cities have proven dynamic both in terms of population, as would be expected in the peri-urbanisation process described by the literature in France, but also in terms of jobs, which have been less analysed. A review of the economic literature on the determinants of firms’ location choice puts forward some of the most relevant determinants that may explain a choice of location outside central cities. This helps put in perspective the role of job opportunities in shaping peri-urbanisation in France in the recent past.

Hesse, M. /Polívka, J. /Reicher, C. "Spatially Differentiated, Temporally Variegated: The Study of Life Cycles for a Better Understanding of Suburbia in German City Regions"

This paper takes a spatially differentiated and temporally variegated perspective on suburban areas. It proposes a conceptual framework for studying the temporal variation and related trajectories of the subject matter, with suburban lifecycles being the key to our analysis. In empirical terms, the paper summarises the findings of research undertaken in 12 selected locales of four major metropolitan regions in Germany. Against the background of assessing the broader socioeconomic development of these regions, detailed local case studies have been conducted in order to reconstruct past and current development trajectories. Our analyses detected particular life cycles (and related segments) in the study areas, based on age and social composition, the physical conditions of the built environment and broader developments in the real-estate market. The different cycles include, in most cases, growth, maturity, transition and resilience, and they are also discussed in terms of their relevance for strategies responding to recent changes.