Audrey Brantonne

The morphology of a territorial network reveals a society's way of life. In this respect, rural towns embody a way of occupying space that has long persisted: a rural centrality, a place of administration and commerce, accessible from the surrounding villages. In fact, the profound changes that have taken place in our society over the last 150 years have radically altered the way in which the land is occupied, and rural towns are now facing a process of devitalization. However, these phenomena cannot be viewed through a single prism, as they are so intertwined with systemic issues and local or regional particularities.

The Meurthe-et-Moselle département lies at the crossroads of a number of regional dynamics, all of which have resulted in the further devitalization of town centers. The phenomena at the root of these trends are manifold, involving both long-term processes and sudden events that have led to a kind of collapse. The de-industrialization of the mining and steel industry in northern Lorraine and the relocation of the textile industry in the Vosges mountains were both local catalysts for regional decline.

At the same time, the expansion of metropolitan areas and the profound changes taking place in rural areas are long-term processes that are fuelling the decline of rural towns. To understand these processes in greater detail, it is necessary to characterize these localized phenomena and the interrelationships between territories at different scales, as well as the influence of morphology on the decline observed. The aim is therefore to highlight the way in which territorial, urban and architectural forms influence the devitalization processes in town centers. This analysis should reveal the permanent features and architectural variations in all the towns in the corpus, in Meurthe-et-Moselle and neighbouring départements, as well as the scope for these forms to evolve as part of a revitalization process.