Following on from earlier research carried out within the PAGODE program (Participation, Community, Management and Sustainability in Eco-districts), funded by the French National Research Agency, this paper investigates the persistance of the sanitary movement in the conception of the sustainable city, in particular regarding its emblematic eco-districts. Starting from applications to the Eco-district National Awards organised in 2009 and 2011 by the French Ministry for Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing, this text contrasts the influence of classical public health movement with the one of so-called "neo-hygienic" policies, on which projects for sustainable neighbourhoods are based. This new sanitary movement has inherited from historical hygiene developments, integrating various transformations and hybridisations under the influence of the ecological approach on urban and social issues. Using a synoptic methodology, this paper analyses several markers of public hygiene, such as health, well-being, the fight against pollution and other forms of environmental nuisance, but also includes technical solutions for protection such as the inclusion of nature or normative pressures to adopt new eco-citizen behaviours.
