The thesis questions the meaning of "industrial heritage" in former industrial cities, both in terms of preservation of industrial heritage and with regard to current urban planning policies such as sustainable development and citizen engagement. The research proposes a critical examination of two programs of territorial transformations of industrial brownfields into sustainable neighborhoods, the Ile-de-Nantes and Docks-de-Seine projects in the city of Saint-Ouen in Ile-de-France. The bibliographical resources refer on the one hand to the question of development of industrial sites in France and in other countries, mostly in Europe, during the decades of great industrial growth and the effects that this industrial growth had on the environment, social cohesion and local economic development. A second bibliographical category is the one which refers to the consequences of deindustrialization on national economic activities and the migration of former industrial workers to cities and countries where industry continues to expand. The last category refers to international discussions on the subject of redevelopment of existing former industrial sites, inside city centers or on the cities’ periphery. The redevelopment acts as a means to control significant population growth in cities, to preserve natural resources and to reduce the ecological footprint of large cities, resulting from urban expansion towards rural areas.Field researches in the two case studies (interviews with the inhabitants, the local elected officials, the developers and professional associations working on local industrial heritage) have been carried out in order to study the development of the two projects and the interactions between the institutional actors and those of civil society. The two case studies showed that the active involvement of local actors in urban renewal projects could lead to new models in architecture and urban planning (ecological, sustainable) centered on the needs of users while preserving the traces of the industrial past. The final conclusion is that the objective of urban growth in former industrial cities could be achieved through the preservation of "industrial heritage" and creative activities offered by local authorities, inhabitants and developers, including research centers and industrial museums.