2009 Grand Prix de l'urbanisme Ceremony - Paris

The 2009 Grand Prix de l'urbanisme Ceremony will pay tribute to the winner François Ascher
november 24, 2009 Carrousel Du Louvre, Paris

The event will be preceded by a debate starting at 2 p.m. on François Ascher's ideas on and commitment to the link between research and urban action.
Publication of two books:
- Organiser la ville hypermoderne [Organising the hypermodern city], éditions Parenthèses A volume edited by Ariella Masboungi and published by the Grand Prix d'Urbanisme, on the oeuvre and writings of François Ascher. No respecter of persons, François Ascher co-opted decision-makers and professionals to equip this hypermodern city with a vision and purpose to guide its development, without yielding to the temptation of a form of dirigisme that has now had its day, for the city is not created by decree. But it can be steered through responsiveness to social aspirations, to the market and to the many agents that produce it.
- L'âge des métapoles [The age of the metapolis] by François Ascher, éditions de l'Aube Monde en cours collection. 392 pages. It is through the analysis of society that the city can be understood and explained. The great urban areas of today – the metapolises – embody the new characteristics of the hypertext society. They are in a way its vanguard. In consequence, a new cognitive and ecological capitalism is emerging, in which the individual is king, able to “browse” between situations, information, beliefs, social contexts... amplifying social differentiations. François Ascher's texts – collected and prefaced by Alain Bourdin – provide insight into the broad processes that fashion the society and city of today. They approach the subject from different points of view – politics, food, day-to-day life – and deploy new metaphors, creating space for the unexpected which is one of the characteristics of our modernity. François Ascher, who died in June 2009, had chaired the Scientific and Strategy Council of the City on the Move Institute since its inception.

MORE INFORMATIONS:
Website: www.ville-en-mouvement.com