Abstract
In a context where the construction of the city during half a century has made exchange and co-presence in the public space difficult, the landscape requires new forms of acting and living together. On Reunion Island, subjected to new needs for public spaces, we investigate the landscape as a political issue by asking how the use of the landscape by planners as a tool to rethink the city may or may not make it possible to renew collective action in urban design. The semi-directive interviews and the commented trajectories conducted with these actors and the inhabitants revealed how the landscape was used in the environmental designing of the city in four urban projects on the island. However, this planning was essentially driven by landscape professionals and was only partially discussed with the actors within the territory. We bring to light the difficulties these professionals have in bringing about a collectively constructed vision and a plan of action for the urban landscape in the island of Réunion that is not restricted to the vision of the expert.