5_GRAND PROJETS CHANGE THE POWER BALANCE WITHIN OUR CITIES

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With the development of Grands Projets and through the introduction of their special governing bodies in charge, cities’ established physical and governing gravitational centres are very likely to change. Marketed as flagship projects with the capacity to transform a city’s image and reality on the ground, new Grands Projets tend to absorb primary investment capital in the region and garner attention from local authorities, private developers and citizens. The realisation of Grands Projets is carried out in an increasingly comprehensive way: the formulation of a project vision aligns with urban design, which is implemented in a coordinated fashion and supplemented by marketing strategies, activities and events. This is made possible through the aforementioned governing bodies, which can facilitate a coherent development that would otherwise be divided amongst many different jurisdictions of the public apparatus. 

The growing range of responsibilities that fall into the hands of single actors might include hosting design competitions, selecting developers, issuing guidelines for building practices or energy standards and space programming and use. They also involve the maintenance and control of open spaces and infrastructures, selection of tenants and place-making initiatives. Our case studies indicate varying scopes of multi-capacity engagement, in which central bodies in charge also function as owners, shareholders, developers, managers, tenants and/or event organisers; this further augments the power of Grands Projets’ specially created authorities.

HafenCity Hamburg GmbH acts as initial property owner and sole agency in charge of HafenCity development and management. Its extremely broad range of responsibilities, entrepreneurial freedom to act and continuity in personnel have enabled a highly coherent project in terms of implementation and management. In the case of Marina Bay Area, the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore (URA) is the main governmental agency in charge of urban planning, tendering of plots for development and management of the public realm. In collaboration with other stakeholders, such as the Sands Corporation, the property owner of Marina Bay Sands, URA assumes the role of place manager to ensure a vibrant, diverse and daily activation of the public spaces around Marina Bay throughout the year.

 

Reference

Any reference to or use of the content present on this page has to be cited as follow: Gasco, Anna, and Naomi C. Hanakata. 2019. ‘The Potential of Grands Projets for Inclusive and Adaptable Future Cities’. In The Grand Projet: Understanding the Making and Impact of Urban Megaprojects, edited by Kees Christiaanse, Anna Gasco, and Naomi C. Hanakata, 603–612. nai 010 Publishers.