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The purpose of this paper is to propose an analytical framework that can help understand the socio-territorial vocation of large scale urban projects. It will explore the subtleties of the symbolic functions of our inhabitant condition or habitus. Based on the idea that place is constitutive of all individual and collective identity, this article shows how contemporary large scale urban projects question the meaning of the places that they re-invest as well as the well-being of their residents. Whereas they are supposed to symbolize and nurture the unique character of the city where they are erected, similarities are increasingly noted between the large scale urban projects across societies. Therefore, how can a large scale urban project still be significant to its population, and thereby be territorializing ? Indeed, is a large scale urban project a landmark or placelessness ? Reviewing and analyzing the distinctive referential power of planning, urban project and large scale urban project, this paper will demonstrate that the socio-territorial vocation of any large scale urban project is very complex considering the various symbolic functions that it can convey and needs an appropriate methodological tool to ensure its representativeness and durability.