Guilhem Blanchard: How does the urban planning authority approach planning decisions? Developing and integrating energy choices in Bordeaux Euratlantique

“How are energy choices made in urban development projects?” This question, born of curiosity, also ties in with current concerns. Faced with the growing importance of environmental issues—and energy issues in particular—in urban development, the urban planning sector is indeed seeking to overhaul its working methods. However, the implementation of such changes is hampered by a lack of understanding of the operational mechanics of urban development projects.
Consequently, our thesis is built around understanding the mechanisms by which urban planning choices are made in French urban projects. More specifically, we have focused on the scope of action of urban project ownership, which spans the interface between the ‘strategic’ orientations of planning and the ‘technical’ choices of formal design. Moving away from the artificial division of tasks between project ownership and project management, we propose that urban project ownership is responsible for a genuine design activity that takes several forms:

– contributing to the development and updating of strategic guidelines and decisions regarding the planning and composition of the urban development project;
– overseeing the client/contractor partnerships in the construction of the various physical components (buildings, infrastructure, public spaces) of the urban environment;
– developing and steering the mechanisms and processes for organising collective action.

In this context, this thesis first sets out to empirically document the ‘black box’ that urban project management still represents. Drawing on an in-depth analysis of the energy-related decisions made during the Bordeaux Euratlantique project of national interest, the aim is to address the following questions: what are the design processes internal and external to urban project management, and how do they interrelate? what processes lead to the formulation and reformulation of planning choices during the project? and what tools does urban project management employ in its design work?
To this end, we reconstruct, in narrative form, the main sequences of action that led to the definition of an energy and environmental strategy, the organisation of the integration of energy considerations into the building process, and the implementation of heating and cooling supply systems. Adopting a pragmatic approach, we combine analytical frameworks drawn from various disciplines (sociology of organisations and technology, management sciences) to interpret each of these sequences of action, highlighting their political, cognitive and productive dimensions.
This cross-cutting analysis of the narrative then allows us to highlight the pivotal role assigned to decision-making, understood as a mechanism for committing to and making collective action irreversible. Like quality, costs and deadlines, decision-making can thus be regarded as a macro-objective that guides the client in their design activities. However, steering the design process through decision-making facilitation sometimes conflicts with the complexity of the socio-technical assemblages of the urban fabric, characterised by interdependencies that necessitate an integrated approach to certain interfaces. The thesis therefore concludes with a re-examination of the quality-cost-time-decision objectives through the lens of a tension between the logic of ‘defining’, guided by technical and economic performance, and the logic of ‘bringing about’, guided by operational effectiveness.

Members of the jury

• Nadia Arab, university lecturer, Université Paris-Est, examiner
• Gilles Debizet, Senior Lecturer, Université Grenoble-Alpes, examiner Laurent DEVISME, Professor, École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Nantes, external examiner
• Nicolas Ferrand, Graduate of the École des Ponts et Chaussées, Olympic and Paralympic Equipment Delivery Company, professional examiner
• Taoufik Souami, Professor, Université Paris-Est, supervisor of Jodelle ZETLAOUI-LÉGER’s doctoral thesis; Jodelle ZETLAOUI-LÉGER, Professor, École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris La Villette, examiner