“Edge city is an American term that refers to a device that focuses urbanized area businesses, services, shopping and recreation. The term was used in 1991 in a book by Joel Garreau. He invented when he was a reporter for the Washington Post. Expression is translated into French as “edge city” [1]. The emergence of edge cities is relatively recent (1960-1970) and reflects the polynucléarisation centers in urban geography.”
Definitions
“Joel Garreau provides a list of five criteria for the identification of an edge city :
- It must have a surface area of over 500,000 m² of offices [2] in which works a total of 20 000 to 50 000;
- She must have more than 60,000 m² of retail [2], that is to say the size of an average mall. The edges are cities and administrative districts of services as well as recreational and shopping;
- Number of rooms must be less than jobs;
- It must be perceived and experienced as a well identified by the population;
- Its urban development must be recent (within 30 years).
Most edge cities are born near a freeway interchange or near major airports. They have few heavy industries. They do not constitute a separate municipality but are administered by individual counties. They are about 200 in the United States and spread horizontally based on the road and motorway network.”
They are the result of urban migration. Urban populations no longer want to live, but without leaving their work is in the city. These “edges cities” are often dormitory towns inhabited by workers of the city.
Source: Mike Davis : “Au-delà de Blade Runner, Los Angeles et l’imagination du désastre.” (wikipedia)
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