Modernizing Clermont-Ferrand. By François SUAREZ & Dana HUSSEIN ASSAN

I took these pictures late morning. It was about 10°C and cloudy. There was the noise of cars and of the tram which stops opposite the shopping center, Rue Gonod. It was very calm and there were few people because it was during the holidays.

The first picture shows an old, dirty-looking, building in Rue Bonnabaud near Place de Jaude. There are only three floors. It is situated near the city center so it is well-situated. I can imagine the dark and dilapidated flats within.

The second photo shows the very attractive modern frontage of the Carré Jaude2, a shopping center completed at the end of 2013. Lots of people visit its fifty shops every day. Carré Jaude2 is 13,330m². There are shops, a very big cinema, a 4-star hotel, offices, and 320 flats.

These two places are situated very close to one another but they are very different. They date from different periods: a relatively old, modest, brick building to house people with modest means near the city center at a time when the urban environment was much smaller and there were few cars, and a very recent building to meet the needs of shoppers who come from the outskirts of the city for the most part (they use public transport or park their cars in the underground car parks) and wealthy residents.

The contrasts are glaring: small versus big, old versus new, redundant versus dynamic, poor versus rich, ugly versus attractive. The only thing these buildings have in common is that they are in the same area of the city; how long before the rest of the older parts of the city center are at last destroyed?