The Bordeaux Métropole Urban Planning Agency (A’urba) has carried out three studies on the start-ups of new districts: Ginko in 2017, Bassins à flot in 2018 and Saint-Jean Belcier in 2024. The urban architect Sophie Haddak-Bayce , director of the uses and quality of life team, and sociologist Emmanuelle Goïty, two leaders of this work, provide the main lessons.
Ginko had a difficult start, what explains it?
Emmanuelle Goïty: The phasing was very long, the central part was delivered first with a shopping street and many construction sites around it. There was parking on the wasteland, a bit of a mess which could be unpleasant for the residents. The district was closely observed from the start, because of the ecological dimension, and it was the first in France built and managed by Bouygues. The defects were widely publicized, with the balcony of a building falling. This marked Ginko. The start of commercial life was complicated, with few inhabitants, businesses had difficulty surviving.
Did the first arrivals wipe off the casts?
Emmanuelle Goïty: This is often the case with pioneers, as they are called. These neighborhoods impose a new way of living in large collectives, with co-ownership managers to whom the residents have had to acculturate. There are more people, neighbors, discussions. Everyone arrives at the same time, there is a life to build, an apprenticeship imposed on the pioneers. They arrive in a new place thinking that everything will be perfect, like on the sales brochure, but they must build neighborhood life themselves. It is also the discovery of social diversity, different profiles of occupants, the need to communicate rather than observe each other. This did not happen alone: the town hall and Bouygues were very involved.
Sophie Haddak-Bayce: Life is set up at the scale of the co-ownership, for the start-up of collective heating, the management of public spaces, parking, trash cans… All of this is not necessarily ready straight away. following. There is a time to set up, it counts because it can create a link. But bad habits can also set in, damage, illegal parking. There is always this double aspect in new neighborhoods. It’s like a transplant, it doesn’t necessarily take right away, it takes a long time and is not always audible to residents caught up in their daily lives.
In Ginko, buried trash bins often become landfills on public roads. Should we see this as a sign of a poorly functioning collective life?
EG: At the beginning the buried bins were undersized, the lids did not close well, people used bags that were too large, this led to hygiene problems and incivility. Is this specific to Ginko? Buried bins do not work well elsewhere, particularly in the city center. There was perhaps a greater expectation here, in a closely watched neighborhood.
S.H.-B. : These new neighborhoods are denser than the city of shops, this requires another look at shared spaces, with more common areas. There is friction in this mixed, dense city, where we have to learn to share, it’s a form of co-management. We come across co-ownership arrangements that are more complex than what we knew. For managers too it is more complicated.
At Bassins à Flot, everything arrived at the same time: residents, big businesses, universities…
At Bassins à Flot, neighborhood life took hold very quickly…
EG: Bassins à flot and Saint-Jean Belcier appeared in connection with neighboring districts, Ginko is more isolated. At Bassins à Flot everything arrived at the same time: residents, big companies like Cdiscount or Crédit Agricole, universities. But here the question of density and businesses emerged more strongly than in Ginko. Today it is a neighborhood that lives through its inhabitants, its workers, its students.
S.H.-B. : it is a typical city center district, very mixed, there are all functions, working people, residents, tourists. It has been programmed for this with major cultural and leisure facilities: Cité du vin, Marine Sea museum, Bassin des Lumières. It’s a neighborhood that’s bustling, a neighborhood of life but also a destination.
How do residents rate the accommodation?
EG: Our three surveys show satisfaction despite the flaws. In Saint-Jean Belcier, 85% satisfaction in housing, 78% for workplaces, these are very good figures. The residents also express great expectations: for the neighborhood to be finished, the end of the noise, the dust, the construction equipment.
S.H.-B. : This satisfaction should not be confused with the judgments made by residents of neighboring neighborhoods. It’s the question of welcoming new residents, what do I gain, what do I lose? There is more noise, traffic, nuisance. New people can feel very good in a neighborhood, while old people are more measured.
Residents are asking for small, affordable food shops, butchers, bakeries, everyday groceries.
Is there anything specific to Saint-Jean Belcier?
EG: There is good feedback on housing and public transport access. The Euratlantique project is also seen as cleaning up the neighborhood: new residents notice that prostitution remains in Paludate, but that it is declining. It is an old activity which is disappearing.
S.H.-B. : The question of places to live and proximity comes up a lot in Saint-Jean Belcier, residents ask for small, affordable food businesses, butchers, bakeries, everyday shopping.
What do we know about the sociology of these new neighborhoods?
EG: Ginko has a population of owner-occupiers very linked to the eco-district dimension, but also a lot of private rental, with a social mix. Les Bassins à flot has a lot of tenants and students. One specificity: there are a lot of apart-hotels and private residences for students, adapted to work-study schools, with a strong demand for accommodation for one week per month.
