Romainville, just beyond the limits of Paris, has preserved its village charm. An atmosphere of the Faubourgs remained there even beyond the upheaval of the 1960s. Of course, the break is visible, but it is not dominant as it is in other towns in the inner ring of Paris suburbs. It can even be said that with an appropriate policy of resorption and integration, these buildings will take their place in the city as landmarks in an urban narrative. The topography, the structure of the town and the strength of the vegetation have preserved Romainville from the gigantism and social segregation that are now so difficult to resorb.

But that does not mean that these urban fabrics are protected. A natural movement of consolidation and banalisation is tending to close off the passages in the heart of the blocks and harden the street fronts. Buildings with four levels on the street front in a single-home pattern considerably transform the urban space.

Another solution is possible. It consists of urban planning that punctuates, building new urban articulations that can both preserve the spirit of the city and build new places of social life while diversifying and modernising the residential offering.

The plots freed up by de-industrialisation, even smaller ones, are the first tools of this transformation if they are complemented by a policy of reparcelling.

An innovative urban form can then be combined with in-depth work to restore green pathways to the city. This is not a homeopathic vision or a policy of “sprinkling.” It is more the idea of reinventing the context using today’s resources.

Why must every contemporary intervention necessarily be autistic and brutal? A tabula rasa approach may have been the guiding spirit a few decades ago.

But we are now in another epoch where sustainable development is now placed at the core of urban action. With, of course, the risk of giving preference to regulations at the expense of the project.

What is beginning is an “inversion of point of view” and a radical change in practices, with all the contradictions and difficulties that accompany these times of change.

We are in a time of “prototypes,” and the Nokia plots are an opportunity to experiment with a new approach at a reasonable scale.