Grenoble – Atelier Populaire d’Urbanisme and Urban Commons Working Group

Organized as a big working group that gathers the inhabitants of the neighborhood, it was created as a result of the refusal of the top-down planning practices of the City of Grenoble.

In 2013, many workshops have started to formulate a new democratic urban project. In the following years, the Ateliers have continued fighting to stop a certain number of contracts and deliberations passed by the old local administration and to design a new vision for the neighborhood. The APU organizes Urban Commons Working Group.

Moreover, on an effort to co-build the neighborhood, the association has organized meetings every week in order to discuss about monthly thematic subjects concerning the new development (housing, environment, cultural and sport activities etc.). The Ateliers plays a central role still today in the fight for a more democratic urban planning. Through workshops, conferences, festivals, and mobilizations, it engages with citizens demands and empowers neighborhoods in the face of big development projects that do not take into account the citizens’ demands.