DRUPSSuC : Design and Renovation of Urban Public Spaces for Sustainable Cities

Despite its crucial role in the implementation and functioning of the societal structures of the city, public space, increasingly privatized and invaded by the car, is becoming more synonymous with nuisance than with well-being. This state of affairs contributes to the exodus of a significant proportion of those urban populations who possess the necessary resources to an extra-urban residential environment that they perceive as offering more advantages. As well as the loss of inhabitants from the most well-off sectors of the population, which is prejudicial to the city in terms of both finance and image, the process of urban spread that results from their move to the suburbs involves considerable consumption of space and energy, loss of landscape amenity, and a weakening of the social fabric. These trends run contrary to the need to move to a more sustainable model of development, which, it must be remembered, meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs