ABSTRACT

In 1934, the International Federation for housing and town planning's first international glossary defined the French word urbanisme not only as "town planning" but also the "study of towns". Historians focused their histories of urbanisme mainly on the development of two public policies: planning and its tools and housing and its actors. Discussing the emergence of urbanisme before the invention of the term, the historiography has highlighted three key movements from the reformist galaxy. A hygieniste movement emerged in response to health issues in many Francophone countries by the end of the 19th century. Another precursor of urbanisme was established in the Francophone countries next to Germany: the movement for the beautification of urban space, or art public. A third precursor of urbanism was municipal governance modernization or municipalisme, the fruit of municipal authority associations lobbying and exchanging ideas between Belgium and France.