La Défense, an unsustainable business model

Created in the 1960s, the La Défense business district - Europe's second most attractive - has for several years been the focus of reflections on its future, its development and its overall economic model. The district's attractiveness and medium-term potential are at the heart of the reflections conducted by control and inspection institutions, the public establishment Paris La Défense*, as well as more local initiatives and user committees. They all converge on the same observation: the need to reinforce the attractiveness of a model of urban planning inherited from the Trente Glorieuses, which is showing signs of obsolescence.