Search
|

Piloting the “City-Metabolism” Chair

  • Publish On 3 October 2023
  • 5 minutes

Périg Pitrou is an anthropologist, CNRS Research Director at the Maison Française d’Oxford and head of the “Anthropology of Life” team at the Collège de France. He is Scientific Director of the City-Metabolism Chair, which links the agency with PSL University (Paris Sciences et Lettres). The aim: to identify how interdisciplinary collaborations can help overcome the challenges of building future urban worlds.

Bibliography

explore

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.

Discover
Vidéo

Stone

Elisabeth Bouchaud, Cyril Pressacco, Denis Macrez, Ana Hedan, Paul Vergonjeanne

Vidéo

Stone

Discover the inaugural lecture of the “Alma Matter” series! In a world where the myth of abundance is collapsing, this series of lectures looks at what matter really has to offer. Actors, professions, economies, temporalities, geopolitics: how do contemporary issues of creation take shape through those of matter? Each talk focuses on a particular material, and brings together its stakeholders in a dialogue. The use of stone in construction declined during the twentieth century. Today, its return is acclaimed for its qualities: inertia, durability, low-emission processing, local presence… but what techniques and applications will be used in 2024? As part of the City Metabolism Chair supported by the Université Paris Sciences & Lettres.

Discover
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.

Discover
Vidéo

Working with living matter

Aurélie Mossé

Vidéo

Working with living matter

Aurélie Mossé is a designer, researcher and head of the Soft Matters research group at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs. Using micro-organisms, she is experimenting with the manufacture of innovative materials that are less costly in terms of fossil fuels or non-renewable resources. By producing calcite, bacteria could become allies in the creation of solid building materials.

Discover
Article

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

Hafid Ait Sidi Hammou

Article

"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?

Discover
Article

Living Beings

LVAO

Article

Living Beings

La Vie à l’œuvre (Life in the Making), a collective of researchers in the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, as well as artists, was set up at the Université Paris Sciences & Lettres in 2014 to explore interdisciplinary collective intelligence around the theme of the living. Functioning as an incubator of ideas, they explore the potential of living beings, particularly via experiments between art and science. A Stream 05 – New Intelligences article to discover!

Discover
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.

Discover
Vidéo

Exploring the possibilities of a feminist architecture

Iris Handschin

Vidéo

Exploring the possibilities of a feminist architecture

Iris Handschin is an architect. In her final year thesis, DMC: Démocratie, matriarcale, citoyenne (DMC : Democracy, Matriarchy, Citizenship), she explores the relationship between sisterhood and architecture. How can we create a shared space of freedom and undo the hierarchical relationships at play in both private and public spaces? Exploring the possibilities of a feminist architecture inspired by the beguinages, Iris Handschin focuses on the rehabilitation of a former textile factory dating from the 1740s, outlining the contours of a truly democratic space.

Discover