The terms technopolis and technopolis appear regularly in the literature at the end of the years 1970. A technopolis however does not constitute a homogeneous unit which is declined on the same model.

Quickly, a debate began on the orthography and the kind of the term. Thus, its orthography changes also its nature.

The technopolis

With the masculine and equipped with a circumflex accent, a technopolis is a pole. To the direction first of the term, it indicates a center marked by the industrial activities of high Technologie. In same time, the pole recalls us the polarized development of the years 1950 - 1960 with the growing points and development poles.

The technopolis is a realization implemented by cities whose development strategies economic are based on the valorization of their university potential and research, by hoping that this one involves a Industrialization new on the initiative of companies of high technology, created or attracted on the spot. In France, the technopolises were often impelled by the State (south-western of Paris, Sophia Antipolis, ZIRST of Meylan, Futuroscope…).

Operationally, they are groupings of organizations of research and businesses which stick to the scientific development by including an overall process, stage of the laboratory until that of the manufacture of the product. Physically, it is a whole of companies (mainly small and average) structured in an environment of quality. At the level of the localization, it is generally located in a relational system closed with universities and research institutes technique, public and deprived. Thus, the technopolis indicates a space precise, the singular point of a Territoire where concentrate and the economic activities closely related to the new techniques are irrigated mutually.

The technopolis

On the other hand, the technopolis (with female and without accent) widens the original concept: it is at the same time technological pole and city equipped with functions of regional polarization, thus associating in the same place and in the same time power of innovation and capacities of regional development.

Form Urbanisation, the technopolis then seems to constitute a complex process of territorialisation-relocalization according to the strategies of the dominant firms, while showing a will of anchoring and integration in the strategies worked out by the local government agencies.

According to the space expression, the importance and the type of activity, one can classify the new industrial achievements in several categories:

• centers of innovation : in extension inside university campus, they provide small research units or expertises for the companies (example: with the University of Technology of Compiegne).

• scientific parks : born in the Anglo-Saxon countries , arranged on the initiative of the universities and near the campuses, their development is related to the firms having a department of “research and development” in growth or already famous, associated with the university laboratories and other subordinate units. This unit is composed of offices, laboratories and workshops (traditional Example of Cambridge Research Park in Great Britain). The French technopolises are often inspired by this model.

• the technopolises (or technological parks ): they include/understand a strong proportion of Applied research, possibly (but not necessarily) in connection with the universities. The essential activity is there the industrial production of high technology and the services with the companies. The technopolises are often the object of a mixed operation, economic activities on a side, habitat and equipment of the other. (One of the traditional examples in France east Sophia Antipolis, or less known, Rennes Atalante).

• parks of businesses and commercial : they are characterized by an environment of high-quality with one weak density and answering all the requirements of the business enterprises having an image of prestige and by highly specialized activities. The functions are triple: manufacture, professional trade and services (One finds many examples in the Paris region, more particularly close to the airports).

• higher industrial parks : often influenced by the image of the scientific parks and the recent tendencies of construction, they have a weak connection even moved away from high technology. But by the quality of the “Design” and their appearance, they profited from an authentic image of high technology.

See too

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Ibery | Michel Delpech | Maurice Hoffmann | Bey Hamam | Symphorien Meunié