Cédric Wehrle

The ecological transition currently underway in Western Europe is the subject of a great deal of thought and debate that is bringing about change. These changes are set to have a profound influence on social values and practices, and will have a major impact on space. In the context of the contemporary city-territory, spaces linked to mobility will be particularly affected. Indeed, this urbanised environment, where town and country intermingle, is largely built around the use of the car, a practice that strongly determines the way we live and build our territory.

Today, we are witnessing an upheaval in mobility practices, as evidenced by the proliferation of projects to redevelop areas in favour of public transport and soft mobility, mainly in densely built-up areas. In peri-urban areas, however, where the spatial impact and dependence on mobility infrastructure are particularly pronounced, the practices developed in compact cities in response to the challenges of transition are difficult to apply, and few alternatives exist.

The hypothesis of this research is that practices signalling a shift towards less car-dependent lifestyles are already present in peri-urban areas, away from the attention currently focused on a limited and unrepresentative part of the territory: urban centres. This research project is based on the premise that an understanding of the extent of the potential for spatial transformation implied by the widespread use of these practices could enable mobility-related areas, which are formidable land resources that structure the territory, to play a crucial role in adapting tomorrow's territories to the many ecological and social challenges that lie ahead.

This project proposes to adopt a project-based research approach applied to the main case study of the Liège - Aachen metropolitan axis.