Sixty years after the creation of the first Carrefour hypermarket at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near Paris, the outskirts of the towns and cities of France have been blighted by a succession of soulless commercial centres, which have become known as 'la France moche’ (ugly France).

There are now more than 1,500 centres across the country, totaling 500 million m2, five times the size of Paris. They account for over two-thirds of household expenditure.

The government has now decided that it is time to "anticipate their transformation over the next sixty years" in a plan announced last week by the Small Business and Tourism Minister, Olivia Grégoire.

Not surprisingly, however, there is no question of bringing in bulldozers to clear them. "Removing them would be neither feasible nor desirable. It is therefore necessary to reinvent them", insisted the minister, who wants to make commercial areas 'living spaces' that include other uses, such as housing, offices and natural areas.

Mostly constructed of metal cladding, the buildings are "thermal sieves" which will have to comply with the government energy efficiency plan of reducing energy consumption by 40% by 2030 and 60% in 2050.

Just how it will all be accomplished will depend on each case:

• In dynamic commercial zones located in densely populated areas the priority will be densification, diversity and greening, all with high architectural and landscape quality;
• In commercial zones in decline, the aim will be to support the contraction by grouping stores and the reclassification of some of the land through new landscaping or new uses, such as housing.
• In commercial zones located in sparsely populated areas or far from the urban fabric, the priority will be to establish new activities, particularly industrial.

An illustration of what is possible is shown at the top of the page.

The problem, however, is, as always, that the cash does not match the fine sounding words. A total of €24 million is being allocated to fund around 20 experimental projects across the country in locations yet to be selected. Local councils will need to enter a beauty contest to obtain the funds. Additional funding will also be available from other programmes currently in place, but the private sector contribution will need to be substantial.

Although local councils have welcomed the initiative, they are concerned that a renewed emphasis on out-of-town retail parks could be at the expense of the town centres, many of which are in a dire state commercially, and for which the government have in place several other programmes.