les ateliers is a non-governmental organization that gathers universities, decision makers and professionals dedicated to planning, development and urban design. Since 1982, les ateliers has been organizing international workshops on topics defined together with local authorities for city or regional planning.

The method consists in gathering students or professionals of different nationalities and different specializations (landscape designers, architects, engineers, economists...), and make them work in different teams that finally present their proposals to an international jury composed of local authorities and international experts.

Each workshop offers to local authorities new and innovative urban development proposals, assessed by the members of the jury and transcribed into a synthesis delivered 2 months after the workshop. These workshops are also a source of training for all the participants, whether they be local or international experts.

At the beginning, les ateliers focused on planning issues for the Paris Ile de France Region. Then, they developed a very high knowledge in Asia (we held 10 workshops there: Tokyo, Doi Tung, Canton, Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh, An Giang, Can Gio, Phnom Penh, Bangkok) and recently diversified their fruitful work combining workshops along the Mediterranean Sea (Casablanca, Marseille and Alexandria of Egypt) and in Africa and South America (Benin, Senegal and Brasil).