The Insufficient Role of Urban Form and Its Uses in Baseline Assessments of Urban Plans in France

Abstract

When broadly defined, urban form is a key dimension of planning, directly tied to the challenges of 21st-century urbanization. In France, municipalities and metropolitan areas use the Local Urban Plan (PLU) as a powerful tool to move beyond outdated functionalist approaches. For these plans to engage meaningfully with urban form, however, their baseline assessments must identify the strengths and weaknesses of built forms and their multiple connections to related issues. Yet the French Urban Planning Code remains vague on both the content and methodology of such assessments, resulting in varied and often inconsistent practices. A comparative textual analysis, supported by an analytical grid applied to diagnostics from Lille, Bordeaux, and Lyon, shows that urban form is generally reduced to physical features of the built environment. However, it belongs to a broader systemic perspective, which is unevenly recognized across the documents. The absence of standardized protocols, spatial analyses, and detailed cartography reflects the lack of a shared framework—ultimately limiting these cities’ ability to produce robust, spatially informed strategies.