Jacqueline Gourault, Minister of Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Local Authorities and Frank Riester, Minister of Culture, invited the mayors and presidents of intercommunality of 222 cities this Tuesday, March 19 at the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, for the 2nde national meeting Action Coeur de Ville, on the theme of urban innovations in the heart of the city. In the presence of Julien Denormandie, Minister responsible for the City and Housing, Sébastien Lecornu, Minister responsible for Local Authorities, and the financial partners of the program (Action Logement, Anah, Bank of Territories), this day was an opportunity to discuss the major challenge of revitalizing city centres.
The Minister of Culture, Frank Riester, pointed out that Each city can and must have a place of Culture, because the attractiveness of a territory is primarily due to its cultural richness. For all municipalities, culture is a formidable lever of economic attraction and tourism, it is a lever of revitalization and cohesion and the means to give a territory its identity. It is in our territories that know-how, arts and traditions are developed. As Minister of Culture, my ambition is to rework the thread of a great policy for culture and creation. This thread, it is in the territories that we will retissessera. »
Round tables and thematic workshops punctuated the day and brought together, alongside elected officials, a large number of experts and professionals in planning, urban planning and architecture. Under the gaze of two great witnesses, economist Olivier Bouba-Olga and academician Erik Orsenna, these moments of exchange on best practices and sharing of experiences brought to life the community created around Action Cœur de Ville.
Marc Barani, Grand prix de l'architecture, Henri Bava, Grand prix de l'urbanisme, Bernard Blanc, president of the Place ouvert à la coopération pour l'innovation (Loci) and Caroline Cayeux, mayor of Beauvais and president of Villes de France, Pierre Jarlier, mayor of Saint-LaurentFlour and President of the Cerema and Simon Teyssou, architect and director of the National School of Architecture of Clermont-Ferrand testified on the dynamics of territories allowing the development of urban innovations.
Announcement of the winners of the Action Cœur de ville national consultation
This day ended with Minister Jacqueline Gourault to announce the winners of the national consultation “Reinventing Our City Hearts” ».
The purpose of this consultation was to bring out sites in the city centre that had emblematic projects and that would benefit from dedicated support in the development of their own local call for projects.
The Ministry of Territorial Cohesion with the Ministry of Culture, the financial partners of the Action Cœur de Ville programme (Banque des territoires, action logement, ANAH), and in partnership with the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, launched in December 2018 a Call for Expressions of Interest that met with a successful with the eligible candidacy of 111 cities, or half the beneficiaries of the program.
Proof of the abundance of ideas and revealing innovative initiatives in the territories, 53 winning cities were nominated to be accompanied in the launch of a local call for projects. These cities will benefit from additional expertise and engineering to formalise the components of a call for projects. They will then receive a grant of €30,000 per city to cover all or part of the costs of such an operation.
The other 58 candidate cities will receive specific support to refine their projects and ensure their eventual realization, with additional financial and engineering resources. Initially not revealed in the specifications, this additional device illustrates the formidable mobilization of actors of the Action Coeur de Ville plan around the challenge of the revitalization of city centres.