The Frugal City

The notion of "sustainable city" tends to become a marketing slogan or a politically correct formula, useful for creating consensus, but not very suitable for founding relevant strategies for urban organization. However, our societies and our cities must prepare to operate with rarer and more expensive oil: since the beginning of the 21st century, the costs related to the operation of cities have increased rapidly and weigh more and more heavily on finances. public and private. The most daring cities have understood that energy constraints could be a great opportunity to reinvent themselves by relying on another vision of the city of tomorrow: that of a frugal city, reconciling the satisfaction of needs with an economy of means. and resources. Illustrating his point with relevant examples in France and in Europe, Jean Haëntjens explains the principle of this model by applying it in a concrete way to the different components of our urban system: mobility, spatial planning, accessibility essential services, etc. A reference in the field of urban planning