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Can there be a “gardening” of cities?

  • Publish On 23 April 2017
  • Marion Waller
  • 4 minutes

Marion Waller studied the environmental philosophy and urbanism at Sciences Po and the École Normale Supérieure.
In 2016, she published Artefacts naturels (Natural Artifacts). The purpose of this book is to give a frame to entities – “objects” – that are intentionally created by men but which can be related to natural processes and are likely to to acquire autonomy as a natural object. This notion of natural artifact allows us to rethink the practice of urban planning, reducing the opposition between city and nature.

Marion Waller is also advisor to Jean-Louis Missika, Deputy Mayor of Paris, in charge of urban planning, innovation and attractiveness issues.

Bibliography

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Vidéo

Wood

Eñaut Jolimon de Haraneder, Christine Deleuze, Christophe Aubertin, Anna Le Corno

Vidéo

Wood

France has the 4th largest forest area in Europe, yet 40% of its timber is imported. At a time when Google’s London headquarters, designed in 2016 with a solid wood structure, has still not been delivered, and when the tallest wooden tower is due to be built in Tokyo in 2028, reaching a height of 100 metres, where does France stand in relation to wood? The RE2020, through the dynamic life cycle analysis, encourages the use of bio-sourced materials to promote the storage of biogenic carbon in buildings. The SNBC is explicitly banking on this sector to achieve its 2050 targets. However, the Paris Fire Brigade doctrine published in 2021 greatly complicates its use in architecture. How can these contradictions be overcome?

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Article

Collective Intelligence in the Making

LVAO

Article

Collective Intelligence in the Making

Collective intelligence has become key to understanding and acting upon the complexity of the contemporary world. But how can the conditions for its advent be brought about? Originating in PSL, the “Life in the Making” collective, which brings together researchers in natural sciences, in the humanities, as well as artists, has been exploring this dialogue between intelligences around the theme of the living since 2014. By operating through a flexible framework, the collective has developed a praxis of interdisciplinary collective intelligence—all the while establishing new insights on life, in particular through experimentations between art and science.

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Soil

Emmanuelle Déchelette, Lucie Ponard, Thomas Gaudron, Jean-Claude Morel

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Soil

Although soil is used as a building material in many parts of the world, it has often been regarded as a waste product in France in recent decades, with little use being made of excavated soil. However, its thermal and hygrometric properties, its extremely low carbon footprint when used raw, its abundance and the natural variations in colour that it offers in every region make it a rich and inspiring material for today’s architects and designers. How can we adapt our building techniques to bring this material into line with contemporary requirements, and get rid of the vision of primitive housing that it still evokes for many people?

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Podcast

“ What can we change in the way we inhabit the land to preserve the soil as an environment? ”

Soil as an environment, property as an inhabiting capacity

Elissa Al Saad

Podcast

“ What can we change in the way we inhabit the land to preserve the soil as an environment? ”

Soil as an environment, property as an inhabiting capacity

Elissa Al Saad is an architect and laureate of the 2023 Palladio Fellowships for her thesis on soil as an environment. By comparing different possible forms of land appropriation, she raises the issue of preserving land resources in relation to ownership. The aim is to think of property as a support for a way of inhabiting that considers land as a common good.

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Vidéo

Aesthetic of Structures

Antoine Laugier, Thanh-Phong Lê

Vidéo

Aesthetic of Structures

Aesthetic of Structures is a collective work published by the Architects-Engineers & Engineers-Architects association (AAIIA). Established agencies, young practitioners, researchers and students discuss a new relationship with structures, moving away from the Vitruvian principles of utility, solidity and beauty, towards an economy of materials, reversibility of use and the reuse of materials. Here we meet two of the book’s designers: architect-engineer Antoine Laugier and graphic designer Thanh-Phong Lê, who give us an insight into the book, as an object and as a structure.

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The art of artificial life

Justine Emard

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The art of artificial life

Justine Emard is a visual artist. Her installations use AI to understand the living, exploring the boundaries between organic life and artificial intelligence. Bee swarms, encephalographic recordings and prehistoric paintings become learning supports for algorithms that, contrary to dystopian imaginations, generate new supra-hyper-organisms.

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"The network is alive" — Networks and those who maintain them

Hafid Ait Sidi Hammou

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"The network is alive" — Networks and those who maintain them

The French underground and aerial landscape is made up of approximately 910,000 km of drinking water distribution pipes, and over 1.4 million km of power lines. Indispensable in our daily lives, they are nonetheless invisible and increasingly questioned in the light of ecological and technological challenges that are transforming our territories. But can’t these infrastructures be seen as a heritage to be maintained and cared for?

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“ What will Paris be like under 50°C? How can we postpone this scenario and be better prepared for it? ”

Paris at 50°C

Alexandre Florentin

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“ What will Paris be like under 50°C? How can we postpone this scenario and be better prepared for it? ”

Paris at 50°C

Our dense, mineral-rich capital is ill-suited to the extreme heat we’ll increasingly have to cope with. So what adaptation strategies can we implement? This is what we asked to Alexandre Florentin, Paris councillor responsible for resilience and climate issues. He chaired the “Paris at 50 degrees” mission, which delivered its report a few months ago: what fields of action for architects and urban designers?

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