{"id":165,"date":"2019-03-26T10:08:49","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T10:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/sustainable-planning-and-environments\/?p=165"},"modified":"2019-03-26T10:23:49","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T10:23:49","slug":"reflecting-on-the-msc-urban-planning-fieldtrip-to-nantes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/sustainable-planning-and-environments\/reflecting-on-the-msc-urban-planning-fieldtrip-to-nantes\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting on the MSc Urban Planning fieldtrip to Nantes…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Le Corbusier’s Cit\u00e9 Radieuse
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By MSc Transport Planning student Marcus Merry….<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Monday we met outside the castle in Nantes at 10.  We milled about the l\u2019office du tourisme, picking up maps, discussing our various experiences of travel and accommodation.  I had journeyed to Nantes over four days by train to Plymouth, ferry to Roscoff, and bicycle via the Brest-Nantes Canal, arriving the previous evening at 10pm soaked to the skin.  Most others had come by plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had\na brief look inside the castle grounds. \nStephen reminded me that the Plantagenet kings of England hailed from\nnearby Angers, and I began to regard the fortification with a proprietorial\neye.  The keep, however, was closed on\nMondays.  Through the spitting rain we\nmade our way to a monument to slavery, a practice in which Nantes was\nhistorically involved.  This was actually\nvery interesting: we wandered along a cavernous underground exhibition which visually\ndisplayed the origins and destinations of the many millions of slaves\ntransported in the slave trade, the appalling conditions they experienced, and\na timeline of laws passed across the world to abolish it.  I was shocked to learn that some countries\nhad not abolished slavery until late in the 20th<\/sup> century, and indeed\nwe discussed the extent to which modern slavery continues still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The monument to slavery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Coming\nback into the light, we went on to visit the resplendent cathedral then to\nVincent Gache on the Ile de Nantes (a large island in the Loire River in the\nmiddle of the city).  Biblical rain and\nhail descended as we sheltered in an alcove of a random building.  Eventually judging the worst had passed, we\nwalked to the nearby School of Architecture. \nHere Laurent Devisme gave us an engaging talk.  I remember him saying that instead of only\nfocusing on best practice, we should also study failures.  As a case in point he referred to a 50-year\ndebate about a new Nantes airport, which had been recently ended in\nrejection.  We went onto the roof, and\nlooked out at the city from the smooth, block-like concrete structure.  The adjacent quirky buildings and arty local\nstudents gave the Ile de Nantes a trendy feel, almost like East London or\nBerlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ile de Nantes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On\nTuesday afternoon we took a train to Angers, another city with a decent tram\nsystem, where we disaggregated to variously enjoy the local castle, art\ngalleries and cafes.  We all met up again\nby the main theatre, and went for a drink together at a nearby bar.  I sampled a glass of a local vin rouge\nrecommended by Stephen, and we headed back to Nantes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The castle at Angers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\nmissed the Wednesday morning tour of U-boat pens in St Nazaire (in the rain),\ninstead spending the time searching for a copy of an important cycling map I\nhad managed to drop in the canal on the way from Roscoff.  Having successfully procured this at a useful\nbookshop, I rendezvoused with them in the afternoon at a refurbished warehouse\non the Ile de Nantes.  Malo Bottani, a\nlocal student, gave us a very interesting talk about the area\u2019s post-industrial\ndevelopment, referring to the different strategies and plans presented in the\nexhibition.  I liked the way that the\nplan for the area was intended to be continually evolving (avoiding a static\nplan which would become out of date), and that the designers in charge were\nchanged every few years to encourage new influences and perspectives (the\ncurrent design team was led by landscape architects).  That evening I watched Man United beat Paris\nSaint Germain with a controversial injury-time penalty, in a bar packed with\nlocals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\nThursday we met early to catch a ferry across to Trentmoult, a former fishing\nvillage on the south bank of the Loire. \nWe then walked to Cit\u00e9 Radieuse, one of Le Corbusier\u2019s modernist\nbuildings, dating from the 1950s.  We\ncrowded into a lift and went to the roof, which was quite a height \u2013 the building\nis still one of the tallest in Nantes. \nThere was a nursery at one end with oddly shaped windows, and a narrow\nrunning track (never much used, admitted our guide) sunk into the concrete\naround the perimeter.  From one side\nthere was a view over winding cul-de-sacs of detached houses, contrasting\nsharply with the high-density block. \nGiven Le Corbusier\u2019s emphasis on light, the puzzle was how apartments\nlooking east or west got light throughout the day; as we stood in the (deliberately)\ndark corridors, our guide revealed all: the apartments looked out both<\/em> sides, with one floor running above\nor below the central \u2018street\u2019 corridor; it was very clever.  Inside the show flat, the quaint 1950s\nfurniture was preserved.  There were\nrounded portholes for doors, which made one feel faintly sea-sick; most room\nand fixture dimensions were derived from the 182cm height of an idealised man.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the\nafternoon Patricia Saraux spoke to us about the WHO Healthy City.  In expressive French (translated by our\nlearned professeurs) she described how both physical and mental health is\nimportant to enable people to take opportunities in life.  Patricia lamented the smoking of local young\nwomen in Nantes, which she blamed for their poor ranking on cancer league\ntables.  Beaming, however, she spoke\nabout how horrible it had been made for cars to be driven into the centre of\nthe city.  I reflected that their plans\nfor shared spaces for cyclists and pedestrians could become problematic as they\nstrove to increase cycling levels; echoing in my head I could hear John\nParkin\u2019s pronouncement, that cycle routes must be designed for speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the\nevening we met in a bar at the top of the tallest building in Nantes, which\noffered stunning views, cocktails, and, arranged about the floor, giant\nlounging soft-toy birds (with children clambering over them) and broken-eggshell\nseating.  After some refreshment we\nrepaired to a crepe restaurant, where I had a pomme gallette and shared a large\nflagon of cidre with my neighbouring diners. \nThence to a nightclub opposite, where I demonstrated my prowess at table\nfootball, had some excellent conversations about Bristol\u2019s urban sustainability,\nand attempted some dancing, before quietly making my exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bar at le Nid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the\nfinal day, Friday, we met at a tram stop near the castle. We went west to the\nGrande Bellevue estate, where Pauline Cottier and colleague gave us an open-air\ntalk about urban renewal.  Many of the\nmodernist, inward-facing 1950s blocks were boarded up and due for demolition,\nto make way for improved units, and they spoke of the importance of\nconcentrating retail to ensure viable places were created.  The original design of the estate contributed\nto the area\u2019s social problems, and Le Corbusier\u2019s work (which we had viewed on\nThursday) could be seen as influencing this somewhat inhuman design.  Stephen, however, noted that Le Corbusier\ncannot be completely blamed, as such estates were constructed at low-spec\ncompared with what he would have prescribed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then we went our separate ways.  I retrieved my bike from the hotel car park, hitched up my bags, tightened my brakes, and began my 3-day journey \u2013 via Rennes and St. Malo \u2013 back to England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By MSc Transport Planning student Marcus Merry…. On the Monday we met outside the castle in Nantes at 10.  We milled about the l\u2019office du tourisme, picking up maps, discussing our various experiences of travel and accommodation.  I had journeyed to Nantes over four days by train to Plymouth, ferry to Roscoff, and bicycle via … Continue reading “Reflecting on the MSc Urban Planning fieldtrip to Nantes…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/sustainable-planning-and-environments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/sustainable-planning-and-environments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/sustainable-planning-and-environments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/sustainable-planning-and-environments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/sustainable-planning-and-environments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/sustainable-planning-and-environments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/sustainable-planning-and-environments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions\/170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/sustainable-planning-and-environments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/sustainable-planning-and-environments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/sustainable-planning-and-environments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}