Nathalie Roseau
Researcher Professor of Urbanism École nationale des ponts et chaussées
Research area(s)
Bio
Nathalie Roseau is a professor of urbanism at the École nationale des ponts et chaussées and a tenured researcher at the Techniques, Territoires et Sociétés Laboratory. Her researches which favor a historical perspective, focus on the dynamics of metropolitan transformation and the place of infrastructures, their temporalities and their representations. Her PhD dissertation (2008) examined the influence of aeronautics on the evolution of cities from 1909 to the present. Her habilitation thesis (2019) examined the role of infrastructure in metropolitan expansion processes. Her current work explores the relationship between mobile and urban cultures in the Anthropocene, comprising three axis focusing on the figurability of the metropolis, the geopolitics of infrastructure, and the landscapes of habitability.
Nathalie Roseau has co-directed several research programs on the history of aerial culture (with Marie Thébaud-Sorger) and the governance of major metropolises (with Frédéric Gilli, Christian Lefebvre, and Tommaso Vitale). She co-founded and then coordinated (with Frédéric Pousin) the research program Inventing Grand Paris, Entangled history of metropolitan areas, and the eponymous digital humanities platform.
From 1993 to 2003, Nathalie Roseau worked as an architect and urban planner in the fields of urban and regional planning in Île-de-France (DREIF and DATAR); then at the Aéroports de Paris agency led by Paul Andreu as the chief-architect in charge of completing, at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport, the construction of Terminal 2F and designing the renovation project for Terminal 1. An elected member of the Board of administration of the École des Ponts since 2009, she directed the Master’s program in Regional and Urban Planning from 2005 to 2016 and co-directed the LATTS from 2019 to 2022. From 2009 to 2015, she was a visiting professor at the School of Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano.
Disciplines scientifiques
- Urbanism
- Architecture
- Contemporary History
Ongoing research
- Territories in/of the Anthropocene : After examining “strong” infrastructure—the bulwarks of a deliberate urban planning approach whose obsolescence reveals its flaws in the context of global change—I am now turning my attention to “weak” infrastructure, which is just as formative: inherited, already present, and still in the making. Understanding the relationship between the space of the large city and the Anthropocene (a term whose very debate interests me as such) leads me to explore the urban margins, while continuing to focus on the long term, within the historiographically rich context of studies on the history of the future, environmental history, landscape history, and the history of representations. This ongoing research project comprises three axis focusing on the figurability of the metropolis, the geopolitics of infrastructure, and the landscapes of habitability.
Key publications
- Nathalie Roseau, "Par-delà l'anthropocène. Projeter l'infrastructure comme relation socio-politique au vivant", Les Cahiers de la recherche architecturale, urbaine et paysagère, n°24, 2025
- Nathalie Roseau, "Aerial perspective on the large city. Subjectivities and unthought aspects of anthropization" in Mateo Vegetti (ed), Aerial spatial revolution in architecture and urbanism, Mendrisio Academy Press, 2025, pp.49-65
- Nathalie Roseau et Bruno Tassin (eds), Au pied du mur. Imaginer les futurs socio-écologiques, Transitions, Les nouvelles annales des ponts et chaussées, n°4, 2024, 148p.
- Anne Jarrigeon et Nathalie Roseau, Condition mobile. Ressorts de l'imaginaire, Infolio (Gollion), 2024, 184p.
- Raphaële Bertho, Sonia Keravel, Frédéric Pousin, Nathalie Roseau (eds), Photographier le Grand Paris. Une histoire visuelle du changement métropolitain, Hermann (Paris), 2024, 330p.
- Frédéric Pousin and Nathalie Roseau, "Behind the metropolis. Understanding Grand Paris through the history of its regional plans", Planning Perspectives (Routledge), Vol39:2, 2024, pp.371-403
- Nathalie Roseau, “Aviation et puissance” in Les années folles de l'aviation, 1919-1939, L'aéronautique au cœur de la modernité, Paris, Lienart, co-publication Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace du Bourget, 2023, pp. 155-167
- Nathalie Roseau, "From articulating the issues to formulating the project. The words of the city-territory", Le Visiteur (Infolio), n°27, 2022, pp.73-82
- Nathalie Roseau, "Mobile cultures and the Anthropocene", The Journal of Transport History (Sage), Vol43:3, 2022, pp.354-367
- Nathalie Roseau, "The shape of things to come. Hong Kong's infrastructural city fabric, 1989-2020", Planning Perspectives (Routledge), Vol37:2, 2022, pp.369-399
- Nathalie Roseau, Le futur des métropoles. Temps et infrastructure, MetisPresses (Geneva), 2022, 256p.
- Nathalie Roseau, "Parallel and overlapping temporalities of city fabric. The New York parkway odyssey, 1870s-2000s", Planning Perspectives (Routledge), Vol36:4, 2021, pp.813-846,
- Nathalie Roseau, "Du périf à l'aéroport, Les temporalités du Grand Paris des infrastructures", Inventer le Grand Paris, Regards croisés sur les métropoles, 2020
- Nathalie Roseau, “Les territoires de l’air: une culture moderne?” in Dominique Faria and Antonio Monteiro (Eds), L'aviation et son impact sur le temps et l'espace, Éditions du Manuscrit, 2019, pp.397- 421
- Nathalie Roseau, "L'infrastructure sismographe: Temps, échelles, récits du boulevard périphérique parisien", Tracés (ENS Editions), n°35, 2018, pp.49-74
- Nathalie Roseau, "Les empreintes de l'infrastructure. De la ville aérienne à la ville aéroport", in Tatiana Debroux, Yannick Vanhaelen, Judith Le Maire (eds), L'entrée en ville: Aménager, expérimenter, représenter, Editions de l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, 2017, pp.77-90
- Nathalie Roseau, "La ville verticale, une abstraction concrète", Geographie et cultures, n°102, 2017, pp.15-38
- Nathalie Roseau, "L'imaginaire métropolitain de Hugh Ferriss, New York, 1916-1962", Marnes (Parenthèses), n°4, 2016, pp.191-237
- Nacima Baron et Nathalie Roseau, "Les gares au miroir de l'urbain", Flux, n°103-104, 2016, pp.1-8
- Nathalie Roseau, "Pouvoirs des infrastructures", Histoire Urbaine, n°45, 2016, pp.5-16
- Nathalie Roseau, "Dal megaevento alla metastruttura. L'aeroporto emblema della città globale", Le Culture della Tecnica, Vol.25, 2014, pp.183-200
- Paul Andreu et Nathalie Roseau, Paris C.D.G-1, B2 éditions (Paris), 2014, 192p.
- Nathalie Roseau, "The city seen from an aeroplane. Distorted reflections and urban future" in Mark Dorrian, Frédéric Pousin (eds), Seeing from above, The aerial view in visual culture, IBTauris, 2013, pp.210-226
- Nathalie Roseau, "Learning from airport's history", Mobility in history (Berghahn books), Vol4, 2013, pp.95-100
- Christian Lefèvre, Nathalie Roseau, Tommaso Vitale (eds), De la ville à la métropole. Les défis de la gouvernance, L'Oeil d'or (Paris), 2013, 400p.
- Nathalie Roseau et Marie Thébaud-Sorger (eds), L'emprise du vol. De l'invention à la massification, Histoire d'une culture moderne, MetisPresses (Geneva), 2013, 208p.
- Nathalie Roseau, "Le Grand Paris des infrastructures, un projet en crise?" in Dominique Rouillard (Ed), L'Infraville. Le futur des infrastructures, Archibooks, 2012, pp.53-64
- Nathalie Roseau, Aerocity. Quand l'avion fait la ville, Parenthèses (Marseille), 2012, 304p.
- Nathalie Roseau, "Airports as urban narratives. Toward a cultural history of global infrastructures", Transfers (Berghahn Books), Vol2:1, 2012, pp.32-54
- Nathalie Roseau, "Rescaling urban matter, The city viewed from the air", New Geographies (Harvard University Press), n°4, 2011, pp.53-63
- Nathalie Roseau, "Du récit à l'icône, Imaginaire et architecture aéroportuaire" in Dominique Rouillard (dir.), Imaginaires d'infrastructure, L'Harmattan, 2009, pp. 91-104
- Nathalie Roseau, "Reach for the skies. Aviation and urban visions, Paris and New York circa 1910", The Journal of Transport History (Manchester University Press), Vol30:2, 2009, pp.121-140
- Nathalie Roseau, "The obsolescence of the monument, the future of airport icons", in D. Van den Heuvel et al., The challenge of change. Dealing with the legacy of the modern movement, IOS Press, 2008, pp.87-92
- Nathalie Roseau, "Les métamorphoses de l'infrastructure, New York et l'imaginaire de la ville aérienne", in Claude Prelorenzo et Dominique Rouillard (eds), Le temps des infrastructures, L'Harmattan, 2007, pp.57-70
Doctoral supervision
- Isabel Soto Antunez (2023), The Design Engineer and the Architect, France, 1970–2000. Practices, Networks, Transfers in the Engineering Landscape. PhD in urbanism and planning, École des Ponts. Co-supervisor (with Antoine Picon, École des Ponts).
Teaching
- Cities, Technologies, Territories, 19th–21st Centuries, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, ENPC, since 2020.
- Exploring Greater Paris: Urban Layers and Memories, Master’s in Regional and Urban Planning, ENPC, since 2024.
- Guest member of the graduation thesis juries for the Architecture master program (ENSA Paris Est) and the State Urban Architects program (ENPC, École de Chaillot)
Scientific and institutional responsibilities
- Elected member of the Board of Administration of the École nationale des ponts et chaussées, since 2009
- Member of the Scientific Council of the City, Transportation, and Territories Doctoral School, Université Paris Est, since 2017
- Member of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Regional Planning (École nationale des ponts et chaussées, Paris Institute of Political Studies), since 2017
- Member of the Research Committee of the École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris-Belleville, since 2019