6_GRAND PROJETS LIE AT THE INTERSECTION OF GLOBAL HIERARCHIES AND LOCAL NETWORKS
Comparative analysis of our cases studies has brought different cultures of planning and development practice into conversation and revealed surprising commonalities, many of which are independent of urban layout and built form. We discovered similar management practices and ambitions, architecture firms and developers (Herzog De Meuron in both HafenCity and West Kowloon, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield in both La Défense and HafenCity and Singapore’s developer CapitaLand, which realises large-scale projects in cities all over Asia). We found similar programme configurations (cultural, leisure or business centres), the same commercial tenants (high-end fashion brands in Marina Bay Area and West Kowloon) and identical tenant types (service industries, national company branch offices, international headquarters and IT branches in Marunouchi, King’s Cross and 22@). This is not a coincidence but rather the result of Grands Projets imagineering similar visions and responding to related spatial requirements. It is also the result of a high degree of exchange between urban megaprojects: namely, learning from the failure and success of others and emulating projects elsewhere. These practices establish a complex, close-knit network between Grands Projets around the globe.
At the same time, Grands Projets reflect regional ambitions, specificities and desires. Even though they might be inspired by or modelled after international references, they emerge from local needs—justified or not justified—and speak to distinct and specific aspirations. With that, their primary scale of impact also concerns their immediate surroundings: in some cases, adjacent neighbourhoods respond to new programme insertions or landmarks by profiting from a Grand Projet through spill-over effects. King’s Cross’s surrounding areas have steadily gentrified since the project’s inception. It is, however, difficult to identify the new project as the sole cause for this, given the area’s central location in London and the concurrent completion of the international rail connection to Europe. In other cases, adjacent neighbourhoods or old city centres find themselves competing with new projects, as observed in the relationship between Hamburg and HafenCity, the old business centre of Shitamachi in Tokyo and Marunouchi and the historic centre of Puxi and Lujiazui.
This dual role of Grands Projets—forming hubs in a global network of knowledge transfer, exchanging actors and inter-referencing project practices on the one hand and establishing locally anchored spatial manifestations on the other—is a key characteristic of urban megaprojects. Grands Projets reconcile global and local agendas, influence global urban rankings of city success and liveability and contribute to a growing network of transnational spaces. They also tie these abstract networks to the ground, where they meet with the realpolitik of local governments, established practices and the people who create and activate them.
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.