Realized during the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2015, “Tous champions” is a workshop proposed by Cité du design as one part of “Crossroads 2015”. in collaboration with People Olympics and Laboratoire de Physiologie de l’Exercice (Université Jean Monnet), Saint- Étienne Métropole, Mixeur. A full day event for second trial in Saint-Etienne, including basketball, soccer, mini golf and Walk & Eat activity, but also prototyping of sports devices .
The Cité du Design, under the auspices of Saint-Etienne City and Metropolis, is organising the 10th edition of the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne from 9th March to 9th April 2017 on the theme of ” Working promesse, shifting work paradigms”.
During the event, the European program Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale, led by the Cité du Design, will be highlighted on 13th and 14th March, with the invitation of all the European partners and local actors for a workshop and a conference.
Monday 13th March will be a day of meetings and exchanges that will focus on the urban scale and the reinvention of the city with its inhabitants. The workshop will bring together the European partners of the Human Cities project, international designers and local actors (City, Metropolis, EPASE, shopkeepers, artists, designers, associations, inhabitants). During this meeting, an urban walk will allow you to discover the different Human Cities experiments carried out on the territory, to meet local actors, and to test the activities set up by the collectives Ici-Bientôt and Hypermatière in the Beaubrun and Crêt de Roch neighbourhoods.
‘Crossroads 2015. Human cities_challenging the city scale’ is a creative workshop organized by Cité du design for the Human Cities program during the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2015. Focused on the conversion of vacant shops and ground floor premises in the Jacquard district, it will bring together local skateholders, designers and international networks . It will be animated by the Carton Plein association, which occupies B.E.A.U. – the temporary urban action office during the Biennial. Carton Plein leads an atypical study in connection with the planners of the city, partners of the EPASE project – Etablissement Public of Saint-Etienne – in order to imagine collectively different scenarios to initiate new dynamics in the neighbourhood. The aim of the workshop is to try to stimulate the emergence of new services, new ways of investing spaces and new ways of inhabiting and living in them. The keys to get a district moving and to bring life to its streets for cities and towns are in their human capital, creativity and design.
“Crossroads 2015” will show how design tools – such as prototyping, script and visualisation – can help to invent new urbanistic tools where creativity is at the service of innovation in the territories. It will create also a dynamic network between the members of Human Cities and the UNESCO Creative Cities of Design network invited by Saint-Etienne, by a collaborative experimentation.
“Crossroads 2015” is also the gathering moment of the 2 main international workshops of Biennale International Design Saint-Etienne : “Human Cities” and “All Champions-People Olympics”: 2 initiatives focused on collaborative experimentation to make an active, creative, vivid city.
Ici-bientôt is one of the Human Cities experimentations launched by Cité du design in Saint-Etienne
Ici-Bientôt initiates a new dynamic in the Beaubrun neighbourhood to fight against the increase of vacant shops and breathe new life into the changing neighbourhood.
Original article by Thomas from CREFAD – Ici bientôt
On 8th January, an unsual crowd was standing in the premises of a former wedding accessories shop in rue de la Ville.
It was the second visit of potential premises for the Ici-Bientôt team together with the artisitic association “les moyens du bord” and the association of education “Terrain d’entente”. A visit to examine the space, imagine new uses and identify the works to do to host various activities.
Association members visiting a vacant shop to test new activities in rue de la Ville together with ici-Bientôt group – ©Ici-bientot
This 45 m2 vacant shop will host 2 programmes during the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2017 from 9th March to 9th April 2017 :
This re-occupation of a vacant premises is one of the projects led by the experimentation Ici-Bientôt : identifying vacant shops, their status, their owners and connecting them with projects’ holders looking for a space for their activities and accompanying them in their project, thanks to the expertise of CREFAD Loire, one of the members of Ici-Bientôt group.
It will a prototype in test during the Biennial month, but the wish is to perpetuate these activities on a longer term ! We wish it will be a success !
Numerous acitivities will be organized during the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2017
More info about its programme and activities you can find here in FR and EN or you can follow the programme and stories on http://ici-bientot.org/ and www.facebook.com/icibientotsaintetienne.
Transforming our cities together, this is one of the missions of the project Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale.
Beyond the European area, this topic is concerning cities around the world. That’s why, since the creation of the project, the Cité du design Saint-Etienne, its leader, has decided to use its rich international network of partners to share knowledge and experience.
During the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2017, the Cité du design decided to invite Detroit, USA, as its Guest of Honour. Both UNESCO Cities of Design, Detroit and Saint-Etienne have a lot of common as former industrial cities, using creativity to reinvent themselves. Detroit shared its experience of a resilient city, placing art and design at the heart of its economic growth.
Detroiters, but also representatives of other UNESCO creative cities such as Dundee, Montreal, or Nagoya participated in the Human Cities activities programmed for the Biennale, together with the European partners and Saint-Etienne local stakeholders.
Josyane Franc, the general coordinator of Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale project, explains how these local, European and global scales were crossing, creating intense exchange of ideas, perspectives and mutual understanding.
All along the year 2017, Saint-Etienne has lived under the rhythm of Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale.
Saint-Étienne has got a distinctive feature of a creative laboratory, where hands-on stakeholders develop methodologies and actions with the communities to transform the city. That’s why the Cité du design, leader of the project Human Cities Challenging the City Scale in Saint-Etienne has created C.H.O.S.E (Collective Humancitizens Office of St Étienne Experimentations), a tool to stimulate and connect these local energies and creative forces.
Within this framework, Ici-Bientôt multidisciplinary group was launched to revitalize a commercial street in the old town.
ICI-BIENTOT (“COMING-SOON”)
Ici-Bientôt is a collective constituted for Human Cities experimentations in Saint-Etienne, to find solutions against the increase of vacant shops and breathe new life into the changing neighbourhood “Beaubrun Tarentaize” . Its main coordinators : CREFAD Loire, an association of long-life learning and capacity building, and Typotopy, a collective of graphic designers, together with a working group of cultural, community associations and residents of the neighbourhood.
Ici-Bientôt is multifaceted: it’s a place, a project and a group population; it’s a synergy between actors (project leaders, owners, associations, institutions…) to find solutions create tomorrow’s urban lifestyles.
Its actions are complementary . Ici-bientôt worked on the history of the districts and its multicultural population ; they opened a resource center, supporting people with projects to set up in vacant premises ; they transformed shop windows and signs of closed or active shops, and they invested the public spaces with artistic installations and performances. Their purpose: to increase the knowledge about the resources of the district, the dialogue and autonomy amongst their stakeholders. For that, they used mapping, interviews, music events, thematic workshops, business support, and a daily presence in the resource center from June 2016.
Mathilde Besse, who works for the Crefad, the main coordinator of Ici-Bientôt, explains one tool used to collect people feelings about a collective question : “the word holder”
During the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2017 ( 9th March-9th April 2017) , Ici-Bientôt helped the set-up of 5 temporary boutiques to test a professional, commercial or non profit activity, involving 30 people: a bar, a collective shop for craft designers ; an associative tea-room animated by volunteer mums of the neighbourhood ; a place dedicated to activities on reading and writing ; a visual and sound exhibition room. Restoration works with 30 volunteers from the neighbourhood helped to renovate the shops and injected a collective energy. Artistic interventions, performances and parties invited people to give a new life to the street. 150 people enjoyed the opening day in Rue de la Ville. Roundtables and workshops allowed the exchanges about the issues of vacant shops and transformations of work paradigms (the theme of the 2017 Biennial) During the last week of the Biennial, pupils from a professional high school worked with Polish graphic designers to offer new signs to 3 active shops in the upper end of the street.
International guests gave new inspirations and ideas. The workshop with the partners from the European project Human Cities_Challenging the Ciy Scale confirmed some intuitions or enlarged the perspectives about the re-activation of vacant shops. A roundtable with designers and activists from Detroit, the UNESCO City of Design guest of Honour of this Bienniail, allowed a fruitful exchange about leisure, work, and community building with the members of the collective.
After this extremely rich period of events, the activities of Ici-Bientôt got back on the support of project holders, mainly with the action of CREFAD Loire, which office is now in the resource centre. The 5 temporary boutiques closed, but 1 permanent opened in October 2017, with the help of Ici-Bientôt. Thanks to their support to build her business and renovate a vacant shop, Souad, a seamstress, opened a shop proposing sewing and embroidery works and activities and her fashion creations. A shared workshop space and craft lab will open for 6 months. 5 new shops will have new signs made by Typotopy.
Moreover, the Ici-Bientôt group is now associated to the working group of institutions, urban planners, and developers working on the renovation projects of the neighbourhood. They have been hired for their expertise and daily observation of the dynamics at the micro-scale of the district. Amongst the coming projects they are contributing to a new center for music and dance amateur practices ; a urban projects center and an action to support new entrepreneurs.
Of course it will happen Ici (here), bientôt (soon).
ECHELLES DE REGARDS URBAINS
(“SCALES OF URBAN VISIONS”)
The Saint-Etienne Higher School of Art and Design (ESADSE) participated in Human Cities with a Masterclass organized by the Laboratory Images, Narration, Documents, under the direction of Kader Mokaddem, professor of aesthetism and philosophy. The Masterclass invited 2 groups of international students to develop a sensitive approach of the city and its scales.
The image of urban scale has become confused: urban installations go over the traditional borders of the city. Students were invited to explore the city, measure the spaces and their transformations, and re-build a circuit of looks on the city in Saint-Étienne.
The productions of images from this Masterclass were presented in the exhibition-lab Human Cities Challenging the City Scale at the Human Citizen office, Rue e la République du Design , during the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne.
Kader Mokaddem, the professor, presents this project :
The challenges of City Scales is a multiple issue, and the sensible approach is a fundamental question to deal with the city tranformations. That’s why these themes will continue to feed the works of the laboratory Images, Narrations, Documents, with seminars involving various city makers, observers, and practitioners, and, why not, the constitution of an “observatory of the sensible city”.
Hypermatière is a multidisciplinary group set up for Saint-Etienne Human Cities experimentations launched by Cité du design in 2016.
Responding to Cité du design call for intitiative (CHOSE), several figures joined their forces: a designer studio and an independent designer: Captain Ludd and Magalie Rastello ; 1 ceramist: Jay Accosta- Valois ; 2 community associations: Amicale Laïque du Crêt de Roch and Rues du Développement Durable ; a gardener: Mathieu Benoit-Gonin.
Hypermatière decided to offer mobile, evolutive, reversible and recyclable interventions in the neighbourhood “Cret de Roch”, which is living various renovations in the longer term. The spaces are changing, people uses too: how to enable inhabitants to be creative actors of the transformations of their district, whether than worried spectators ? Through collaborative artistic projects and solidarity services, the Hypermatière project allows to highlight a “space in movement” on the scale of a neighbourhood, showing the process and the relevance of contributing practices .
In 2016-2017, the Hypermatière group organized several workshops to highlight the -sometimes- hidden resources of the district to its inhabitants , collect people needs and feelings about it, make them know that something collective was possible to do.
Marion Chaize, coordinator of Hypermatière group, explains the project
For the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2017, Hypermatière decided to set-up a temporary public – or rather collective – space on a demolition site. As they discovered a hen and rooster living there, the place became “the rooster square”, a place to play and meet during a bit more than one month.
Paul Buros, designer and member of the Captain Ludd studio explains how this public space took shape
The “rooster square” allowed to test the uses of a possible public space in this part of the neighbourhood. During the Biennial, it attracted more than 500 people for the various activities (from barbecues to conferences, including workshops, concerts, etc.). A Brazilian designer, Fernando Mascaro, gave a Masterclass about the “design of feelings”. A musician form Detroit, Ian Tran, was so fond of the place that he decided to make an initiation to violin playing with the children frequenting the place. Taking care and responsibility of this place open to all, some parents proposed to organize an event where they could sell home-made production, other asked if they could organize a birthday afternoon with the children of the surroundings. The workshop with the European partners of the Human Cities project on 13th March allow to test some activities proposed by Hypermatière (construction games ; Minecraft game of the neighbourhood ; botanical and social economy resources itineraries) and to exchange ideas on how to facilitate such urban experimentations in cities.
The rooster square demonstrated its capacity to mix populations, cultures, and generations. It proved its function of experimental place at the service of inhabitants. It can be a prototype, giving precious specifications for a potential future public space in the future development of the area. Welcoming international experts, it changed the image of this part of the district, generally barely known even by Saint-Etienne citizens. Now people are convinced that things can happen even there.
The Hypermatière proved its capacity to be a generator of initiatives for the neighbourhood, participating to a larger movement of alternative economy and development, that can be related to the concept of “contributive economy”.
Raymond Vasselon, member of Hypermatière collective, a former architect , explains this collective dynamics in the Cret de Roch neighbourhood :
After the Biennial, the rooster square remained some extra weeks to welcome the kids during the holidays, and then was dismantled. Thanks to the meetings with Detroit designers, Juliana Gotilla, one of the designer of Captain Ludd , participated to an international research-action project led by the Detroit University of Michigan about comparative urban experimentation in Detroit, Saint-Etienne, and Rio de Janeiro. The municipality showed its interest in using the ceramic tiles printed with the spontaneous plants of the neighbourhood in some micro public spaces under renovation. And the local policy makers in charge of the urban and social development of the neighbourhood are thinking about re-elaborating some practices using the experience and expertise of Hypermatière
Still a lot of (hyper)material to work in the coming months and years.
TOUS CHAMPIONS ! – Everybody is a champion !
Tous Champions! Was born from a bigger, international initiative: People Olympics.
People Olympics: 10.000s strong teams competing for their city WellBeing, fun and social transformation. A social innovation game based on collective physical activity competition. The People Olympics game is based on competing cities. Each city has a team of 10.000 participants, which reflect that city demographics. The members of the team track their physical activity trough portable devices, which provide all the physiological data. A system collects all data and updates the real time cumulative fitness activities at city level, and compares it with the value of the other competing cities.
In this context, Tous Champions! Aims at
Key actors
Main promoters: Cité du design, People Olympics, city of Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne metropolitan area, OpenFactorySainté, OpenSCOP, Laboratory of Physiology and Exercise, Jean Monnet University
Role of design
Design is involved at implicit level through the use of co-design methodologies (ideation and prototyping workshops) where participants are facilitated by a designer or a craftsman to imagine, discuss and draw new scenarios and/or participate to the elaboration of infrastructures in the urban area. Service design approaches: thinking of the urban touchpoints where the practice of physical activity is relevant, prototyping on the field etc. are also applied in Tous Champions! Some aspects of public space design are also raised as the practice of physical activities depends or can influence the urban infrastructures (furniture, lamp posts, street signing…). For communication, posters and leaflets have been designed by Cité du design graphic designers.
CONTACT (of the editor)
Mikaël Mangyoku – Organization: Cité du design – Email: mikael.mangyoku@citedudesign.com
How to continue thinking about and making the city when your job as an urban planner seems completely disconnected from the realities of the field and its inhabitants? Why not trying to use the city as theatrical material? And how can we integrate the voices of people living in this city? When Yoan Miot, urban planner met Arthur Fourcade, director of the Collectif X, Saint-Etienne multidimensional theatre company, they built together “VILLES” (CITIES), a theatrical laboratory of collaborative urban planning.
From 2nd to 21st May 2016, VILLES#1 was in residency in the Beaubrun district of Saint-Etienne. This laboratory is associated to C.H.O.S.E, the Human Cities bottom up experimentations led in Saint-Etienne by associations following the Cité du design initiative. It will inspire the work of designers, architects, researchers, artists etc. who will then activate the neighbourhood in 2016 and 2017.
VILLE#1 Saint-Etienne portrays a sensitive image of Saint-Etienne and its neighbourhoods, its living stories, its multiple identities, contradictions, and aspirations. It gives voice to its real inhabitants, those which you can’t see in the 3D models of renovations, and it turns the artistic performance into an opportunity of collective questioning and expression around the theme of the city
As an experimental and collaborative theatrical laboratory, it is built on specific protocols:
PROTOCOL #1 – URBAN WANDERING
During their residency, the actors walked throughout the city following an imposed itinerary. They collected their sensations: sound, touch, people they met, their wanderings. The performance begins as an adventure with these travel stories at a city scale.
PROTOCOL #2 – PORTRAITS
A retired man coming back in Saint-Etienne after 30 years spent in another region, who discovers a city with a more intense student life, people exchanging seeds for community gardens and a changed social life; a young Tunisian mother stunned by the insalubrity of the house and who has the urge to “finish her study” to become a laboratory technician in order to work with a French diploma; a building caretaker comparing New York and Saint-Etienne, a cheese producer on the market.. During their residency, the actors organized interviews with all kind of inhabitants, collected their life story, their impressions about the city, and they reproduced, represented them by , saying “I, myself”. And let me tell you that you would not have known the difference: we could have sworn that it was really these inhabitants, in flesh and bone, in front of us.
PROTOCOL #3 – PUBLIC CHOIR
During the residency, Collectif X organized workshops with schoolchildren, researchers, associations of the neighbourhood. They drew mental maps, wrote some texts, and answered questions about the city. The actors also collected statements about Saint-Etienne in the media and books. From this material they gathered 100 definitions about Saint-Etienne: scholar, poetic, absurd, provocative ones… These 100 shades of Saint-Etienne are read out loud, by a choir composed of the actors themselves but also members of the audience that were invited to open rehearsals every evening during the time of the residency and before the final performance. For anybody hearing it, it is fun and powerful. For anyone saying it, it’s liberating.
PROTOCOL #4 – CONTROVERSY
During the residency, every evening, Collectif X organized a debate about the city: social housing, sociability in bars, the transfer of the theatre from this neighbourhood to another one, etc. In a similar way, the last part of the performance invited the audience to put forward their reflections and thoughts about urban topics and their way to participate in the city making.
VILLE #1 Saint-Etienne fits in perfectly within the dynamics of Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale. It deals with the city as a human thread where stories and experiences are intertwined, where you can hear multiple voices, sometimes contradictory, or hopeful, or even very critical. Through its protocols, it offers an original way of collecting sensible, human scale, information, and sharing it, each evening with a different result, transforming the spectators into real actors of the city.
This precious material is shared with residents, researchers, administrative and political authorities which were invited to debates and performances. It will also feed the Human Cities experimentations in the Beaubrun district. Collectif X is one of the associations that will work in this neighbourhood to activate its streets, highlight its local life, build and put forward new projects and emerging activities to be set up in vacant shops.
To be continued !
How Saint-Etienne launched a Collective Humancitizens Office of StEtienne Experimentations (C.H.O.S.E)
Saint-Etienne distinguishes itself by its design laboratory approach where some local actors develop their own actions and methodologies in order to question urban issues and to transform the city with its inhabitants. The Human Cities sessions organized in July by the Cité du design with local actors allowed the revelation of the abundance of projects, the stimulation of the desire to cooperate and to create a community of Saint-Etienne Humancitizens.
A survey on emerging convivial design in a human scale city
During the European programme Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale, the Cité du design, lead partner, has chosen to put the spotlight on different projects undertaken by the inhabitants of its own city.Human Cities programme, which by the end of its survey, was no longer questioning the effects of scale leading to interactions between the actors, but a form that was gradually revealed as the survey progressed: the mesh.
The book “Maillages” (Meshes) consists of a review of experiences and experiments . It is a survey made by the designer Magalie Rastello who interviewes the collectives that were active in Saint-Étienne during the Human Cities project. Her work is completed by structuring commentaries by the heads of the programme at the Cité du Design (Josyane Franc, Camille Vilain, Olivier Peyricot and Nathalie Arnould), all of which has been editorialised by Victoria Calligaro, with the unwavering support of the associations and collectives and, finally, some reflective contributions from Raymond Vasselon.
A survey on emerging convivial design in a human scale city by Cité du design Saint-Etienne
Read the book : Maillages_web_planches_BD
A city is an entity in perpetual movement that is permanently evolving. Whether these transformations are minute, gigantic, discrete, ostentatious, brutal or progressive, their implementation involves several scales of organisation and different processes. Big events can sometimes radically change the face of a city for a few days, but the deeper changes are often those that set in over the time it takes to carry out urban development and major renovation projects. Cities are also subject to other types of changes, whose timescales vary and which are initiatives of inhabitants and voluntary sector actors who wish to act on their everyday environment.
During the European programme Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale, the Cité du design, lead partner, has chosen to put the spotlight on different projects undertaken by the inhabitants of its own city.
As the Human Cities_ Challenging the City Scale programme has sought to show throughout its course, the stakeholders grappling with the challenge of the urban transformations give their projects a strong political and experimental dimension.
Human Cities programme, at its final phase, was no longer questioning the effects of scale leading to interactions between the actors, but a form that was gradually revealed as the survey progressed: the mesh.
This perspective opens up a space for possibilities that gives structure to the actors’ feelings of connections between them, linking to their multiple realities. The effective life of a city is made up of meshes and binders, tenuously linking the entire territory in one and the same net, which encompasses everything in a single living environment, including the institutions, the official producers of the urban, but also residents, their imaginations, their actions, human and non-human.
As the Human Cities European programme comes to its end, we can say that the focus on one city – Saint-Etienne – and the local actions that we know so well has enabled us to get our feet back on the ground. Maillages (Meshes) proposes to draw out of the Saint-Étienne situation an exemplary structuring of citizens’ initiatives, which, over the last decade, have given the city a remarkable identity: the medium- sized city claimed as a space on the right scale, ideal to produce resilience, a city on a human scale.
Maillages (Meshes) consists of a review of experiences and experiments . It is a survey made by the designer Magalie Rastello who interviewed the collectives that were active in Saint-Étienne during the Human Cities project. Her work is completed by structuring commentaries by the heads of the programme at the Cité du Design (Josyane Franc, Camille Vilain, Olivier Peyricot and Nathalie Arnould), all of which has been editorialised by Victoria Calligaro, with the unwavering support of the associations and collectives and, finally, some reflective contributions from Raymond Vasselon.
Since 2014, the Human Cities network has been working on Challenging the City Scale to question the urban scale and investigate cocreation in cities. The Human Cities partners have carried out urban experimentations in 11 European cities empowering citizens to rethink the spaces in which they live, work and spend their leisure time.
Challenging the City Scale, journeys in People-Centred Design is the final book of the project. Through conversations with people involved, the book examines how bottom-up processes and their design, tools and instruments generate new ideas to reinvent the city. It offers inspiration and insights to everyone, from practitioners and politicians to designers and active citizens, eager to try out new ways to produce more human cities together.
Title : Challenging the City Scale, Journeys in People-Centred Design
Collective book co-edited by: Olivier Peyricot, Josyane Franc, Frank Van Hasselt
Authors: Josyane Franc, Olivier Peyricot, John Thackara, Alice Holmberg, Côme Bastin, Fleur Weinberg, Anya Sirota, Frank Van Hasselt, Robin Houterman
Graphic design: Audrey Templier, Isabelle Daëron Language: English Publisher and distributor: Birkhäuser, Basel
Co editors : Cité du design (Saint-Etienne) et Clear Village (Londres) ISBN: 978-3-0356-1796-2 Format : 21,5 x 26 cm (vertical)– 176 p Price: 39.95 € Available in partner’s bookshops and bookshop distributed by Birkhäuser Open access digital version: https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/510323?format=EBOK
The printed version was launched on 4th May 2018 in Graz, during the event organized by FH JOANNEUM included in the programme of the Festival Design Month.
You can now download it in digital , open access version following this link:
01_human_cities_challenging_the_city_scale_2014-2018_investigation
The book “Investigation” is a collaborative research work, made from all the case studies collected by the partners in Europe publicated on this website. They tell about actions led by creative citizens to transform their urban environment. Researchers from Cité du design Saint-Étienne, the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano and Urban Planning Institute of The Republic of Slovenia Ljubljana provide a state of the art of these initiatives. Analysing these multiple examples, they investigate how urban dwellers participate, get organized and collaborate with creative professionals to prototype more liveable cities.
This scientific work published by Cité du design Saint-Étienne is addressed to researchers, practitioners, but also developers or creative citizens.
It is both an object of Design research and an incentive to develop experimental and collaborative projects of urban transformation.
Title: Human Cities / Challenging the City Scale 2014-2018 / Investigation
Main authors:
Cité du design Saint-Etienne: Isabelle Daëron, Floriane Piat & Eléa Teillier
Design Departement, University Politecnico di Milano: Davide Fassi & Laura Galluzzo
Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana: Matej Nikšič, Nina Goršič & Biba Tominc
Language: English
Copyright © Cité du design, 2018
ISBN: 978-2-912808-79-0 . Format : 215×260 mm – 240 p – not sold – free distribution within the framework of Creative Europe Programme of the European Union 2014-2018
As cities organizations are facing major urban and technological transformations, European citizens are taking possession of their cities, collaborating or acting for its renewal. Which kind of tools are set up to think and produce the public space together? How to make these bottom-up initiatives sustainable?
Challenging the City scale 2014-2018 / Investigation is a collaborative research work of Human Cities project, made from more than 80 case studies collected by the partners in Europe. They tell about actions led by creative citizens to transform their urban environment. Researchers from Cité du design Saint-Étienne, the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano and Urban Planning Institute of The Republic of Slovenia Ljubljana provide a state of the art of these initiatives. Analysing these multiple examples, they investigate how urban dwellers participate, get organized and collaborate with creative professionals to prototype more liveable cities.
This scientific work published by Cité du design Saint-Étienne is addressed to researchers, practitioners, but also developers or creative citizens.
Title: Human Cities / Challenging the City Scale 2014-2018 / Investigation Main authors: Cité du design Saint-Etienne: Isabelle Daëron, Floriane Piat & Eléa Teillier Design Departement, University Politecnico di Milano: Davide Fassi & Laura Galluzzo Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana: Matej Nikšič, Nina Goršič & Biba Tominc
Language: English Copyright © Cité du design, 2018 ISBN: 978-2-912808-79-0 . Format : 215×260 mm – 240 p – not sold – free distribution within the framework of Creative Europe Programme of the European Union 2014-2018
Special issue of Saint-Etienne Higher School of Art and Design Magazine about Human Cities.
Invited by Cité du design Saint-Étienne to join the Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale European programme, the Images_Récits_Documents team at ESADSE (Saint-Étienne Higher School of Art and Design) has been pondering the notion of the scale of the vision of urban space through photography.
Actually, academic partners of Human Cities were in charge of developing Masterclasses. That’s why the laboratory Images, Narrations, Documents (In French : Images_Récits_Documents — IRD) of the ESADSE has worked for 2 years with ERASMUS and international students on the topic of the scales of urban visions, under the direction of Kader Mokaddem, teacher and co-director of the IRD lab.
The Masterclass relied on the practices of documentary photography developed in the lab’s research programme “Documenter, fictionner un territoire” since 2010. The students and researchers enriched their ideas with the meeting of international speakers and local stakeholders.
This issue of “Occurrence” traces the results of this work.
Place au changement! – Place of change!
The Public Urban Planning Agency of Saint-Etienne (EPASE) launched a call for projects « Défrichez-là » to design a temporary public space located near the Châteaucreux train station and the Chappe-Ferdinand area. In March 2011, the Collectif Etc. won the competition.
The Collectif Etc. aimed to initiate a collaborative process in the design of the public space. It also wanted to use the time of the construction site to meet and involve inhabitants in the project.
The Collectif Etc. provided everyone tools, safety gears and advice. Local associations, artists and musicians were invited to organise various activities such as wall paintings, concerts, circus workshops, open air movie, sports, tournaments, tango lessons, special meals, debates… An online blog got set up and showcased the everyday life of the construction site.
Key actors
– The Public Urban Planning Agency of Saint-Etienne (EPASE) invites the Collectif Etc for the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2013.
– The Collectif Etc launches a call for projects, aimed at collectives.
– The Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne.
– Pauline Escot, graphic designer in charge of the project communication.
– Malo Mangin, product designer in charge of projects installation.
– The “Dames de Cote-Chaude”, organised an exhibition telling the story of the project.
– Five collectives : BLOC Paysage, Grand Est, J’aime Beaucoup Ce Que Vous Faites, Total Clinche, and the Collectif Parenthèses. They all applied to the open call organised by the Collectif Etc.
– Vincent Tuet, film director.
– Volunteers
– Alexis Gante, Public Urban Planning Agency of Saint-Etienne (EPASE)
– Laurane Ponssonet, Chief of urban projects, City of Saint-Étienne.
– Raymond Vasselon, Architect, Organisation for Business Development (Rue du Développement durable)
– Inhabitants of Saint-Etienne
– Inhabitants of the neighbourhood.
– Users of the Chateaucreux train station.
Role of design
Answering the on-going urban changes in the neighborhood, the project simulates a first step of the process in which a building is designed and built. The role of design could be to make the potential of the site visible.The idea is to represent the plan of imaginary housings on the ground and their section on the wall. That way, people can imagine living in the future buildings and get an idea of the impact of the real one that should be built in a couple of years.
CONTACT (of the editor)
Collectif ETC – Téléphone : +33(0)6.61.24.78.91 – Email : contact@collectifetc.com
Address:
50 boulevard de Paris – 13003 Marseille – France
Conceived by ESoCE Net (the European Society of Concurrent Engineering, non profit association focusing on Collaborative Social Innovation) president Roberto Santoro, the People Olympics is an international initiative and disruptive approach, developed for societal change at large, with the objective of focusing collective intelligence to the joint Intent of addressing today’s challenges. 10 thousand-strong, this team will compete in a competition for their city’s well being, fun and social transformation. A social innovation game based on collective physical activity and fair play.
The People Olympics game brings together competing cities. Each city has a team of 10.000 participants, which reflects that city demographics. The members of the team track their physical activity trough portable devices, which provides physiological data. A system collects all data and updates the real time cumulative fitness activities on each city’s level and compares it with the value of the other competing cities. People Olympics enables a totally innovative and new experience, new sense of belonging, new emotions, new relationship, healthy competition and a compelling motivation for a physically active and healthy living: People exercising at home, at work, in the city and on the go, get new excitement, healthier living and avoid boredom. People Olympics is the motivational mechanism par excellence and is dedicated to all, young and old, male and female participants, collaborating and competing trough their daily physical, social and co-creation activities in normal living scenarios. This approach promises to change the behavior of people because it involves a collective actio, which is an extraordinary motivating factor, influencing people’s ability to change.
The People Olympics counts many partners spread through cities like Bilbao, Barcelona, Belfast, Milan, Rome, Saint-Etienne, Sofia, Istanbul, Taipei, Montreal, San Francisco and the European network of Living Labs. That is the reason why Human Cities Network created and developed a Toolbox to inspire everyone to undertake projects and actions in the public space. The Human Cities Toolbox is proposing a selection of European existing examples, inviting those who wants to reclaim public space to start action.
As part of the initiative People Olympics “Tous champions! ” is an event in Saint-Etienne which encourages the public to the practice of physical activity (Football, basketball, urban fitness etc.). “Tous champions #3/People Olympics” will be presented by Isabelle Verilhac in Saint-Etienne during the Crossroads 2015 workshop from 16 to 17 March 2015. This presentation on the creative area of the Manufacture Plaine Achille will mark the opening Spring 2015 of People Olympics Games.
Here is a video of the first edition of ‘Tous champions” last year at the Cité du Design in the festival “Ville en partage”:
Olivier Peyricot is a designer and was between 1996 and 2010 the director of the agency IDSland specialized in industrial design, furniture and fittings business. Then since 2008 he was professor of object design at ENSAD – National School of Decorative Arts. Now he is director of research at the Cité du Design of Saint-Etienne.
Since 2010, he is active in the areas of intervention in the research and experimentation in the fields of automotive, domestic and urban spaces, technology and lifestyle.
The printed version was launched on 4th May 2018 in Graz, during the event organized by FH JOANNEUM included in the programme of the Festival Design Month.
You can now download it in digital , open access version following this link :
01_human_cities_challenging_the_city_scale_2014-2018_investigation
The book “Investigation” is a collaborative research work, made from more than 80 case studies collected by the partners in Europe. They tell about actions led by creative citizens to transform their urban environment. Researchers from Cité du design Saint-Étienne, the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano and Urban Planning Institute of The Republic of Slovenia Ljubljana provide a state of the art of these initiatives. Analysing these multiple examples, they investigate how urban dwellers participate, get organized and collaborate with creative professionals to prototype more liveable cities.
This scientific work published by Cité du design Saint-Étienne is addressed to researchers, practitioners, but also developers or creative citizens.
It is both an object of Design research and an incentive to develop experimental and collaborative projects of urban transformation.
A second book – addressed to a more general audience – will be released in September 2018 and presented in Tallinn during the Desainiöö festival.
Nathalie Arnould is a designer post graduated from Saint-Etienne Higher School of Art and Design. She has participated to the Saint-Etienne International Design Biennial from its beginning in 1998, and was one of its curators in 2006 and 2008. She has been Manager of sustainability projects, then Manager of the projects with the territory at the Cité du design. At this position, she worked with the public authorities and realized projects to integrate design in the city, in the shops or for the renovation of the hotels for example. In 2011, she has become the first design manager for the public authorities in France. Her mission is to integrate design in the policies led by the municipality and the Metropolis, disseminating the culture of design in all the services of these administrations.
(www.myfavoriteboutique.
At the core of this city’s urban renewal, (www.myfavoriteboutique.
Métamorphose. Design Local ! Ou la rénovation selon les usagers – Metamorphosis. Local Design ! Or renovation according to users.
Métamorphoses. Design local ou la rénovation selon les usagers aimed to redevelop the working room of Mutual aid group (GEM) Lucien Bonnafé by adopting a participative approach. GEM is a support structure, a place of welcome and activities for people with mental problems, often isolated, who need to find out soothing and reassuring landmarks.
The urgent need to renovate the working room of the association, old and inadequate, is the origin of this operation. Poor lighting, inadequate storage, overabundant furniture, nonexistent privacy area, display area and signage absent : the development weighed on all users, members as organizers.
How, indeed, improve mental health, give again confidence to individuals and encourage discussion in these conditions ?
Assisted by organizers’s association, the designer Julien de Sousa was first invited users to observe and diagnose dysfunctions and qualities of the place. Through the right tools, he led them to generate ideas, make proposals, imagine scenarios and choose what could be carried out. Also involved in the project, users’s GEM took part in the entire process of renovation.
Key actors
Promoters :
Secondary players :
– Gerflor / Tited floor
– Montmartin / Sawmill
– Bernard Perillat / Plaster works et dilettante painter
– Brunon / Carpentry
– Planforêt / Carpentry
– Électron libre
– Julien Brigué / Electrician
– Tapis François / Supple ground
– Gérard Cheucle / Tiler
– Claire Carrelages / Tiling
Beneficiaries :
Role of design
Design is at the heart of the process, initiated since the start by a designer in the Cité du design, the whole methodology is based on the design practice. The renovation project is led by a other designer, from the observation of uses, conducting awareness workshops to design and participative design from users to the project design (scenarios and plans) then realization with monitoring the work.
The innovation is in the approach and methodology in place : this is the first time an association that uses the design to work with people with psychological difficulties in a renovation project is also the first time the Cité du design and the designer get involved with this type of public.
It is the network of these actors that make Métamorphoses. Design local ! ou la rénovation selon les usagers exemplary cooperation project.
CONTACT (of the editor)
Caroline d’Auria-Goux – Organization : Cité du design, Saint-Etienne, France – Email : caroline.dauria-goux@citedudesign.com
Works in Lyon Confluence ©IRD
A Masterclass organized by Cité du design and the Laboratory Images-Narrations-Documents of Saint-Etienne Higher School of Art an Design , within the framework of the European project Human Cities/ Challenging the City Scale [NB : French-speaking event]
A Masterclass to analyse different levels of urban actions, from the institutional policies (local governments) to the practices of collectives of citizens , which design scales of urban spaces, and the individual action of indepedant designers.
Urban action requires an analysis of “the action” : measuring the involved spaces and considering its differents actors. This Masterclass will give the floor to the “practionners” or “actors” : the ones who act,by doing,on the material of urban spaces. It will present 4 cases developed in Saint-Etienne during the project Human Cities_Challenging the CIty Scale, managed by the Cité du design. These cases are drawing different typologies of city scales (the groundfloor premises; the street,the neighborhood ) and different typologies of actors’ scale (a designer, a collective an association). The speakers will not simply present the content of their actions but rather explain their aim, their organization and their relevance in relation with their dimension.
Speakers
– Josyane Franc, Coordinator of Human Cities_Challenging the CIty Scale project, Cité du design
– Kader Mokaddem, professor of philosophy & aesthetics,Laboratory Images-Narrations-Documents of Saint-Etienne Higher School of Art an Design
– Raymond Vasselon, architect, Association Amicale Laïque du Crêt de Roch: “Scales, power & urban creativity”
– Thomas Frémaux, manager of Ici-Bientôt project, CREFAD Loire social economy NGO : ” CREFAD Loire, an interface supporting out-of-the-frame projects of business creation”
– Paul Buros, designer, Captain Ludd collective ” Social design and territory”
– Magalie Rastello, independant designer : “Entity and fragments, spatial en temporal percpetion of a neighborhood”.
– Philippe Simay, philosopher, École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris–Belleville et membre du laboratoire Gerphau-LAVUE
Marie Seng joined the Cité du Design and the project Human Cities from September 2015 to October 2016.
She has an undergraduate degree in International Development and Spanish from the University of Leeds (UK) and a joint masters degree “Altervilles” (urban strategies and policymaking within public, private and non profit sectors) from both the University Jean Monnet of Saint-Etienne and SciencePo Lyon.
Les Bergers Urbains – The Urban Sheaperds
Every year some hectares of farmland disappear in favor of urban area extension (85% of the French population lives in urban areas. Source: INSEE). In response of this context, five friends founded Clinamen Association in 2012 Saint-Denis. They wanted to reintroduce farmer practices in the urban spaces through transhumance, henhouse, vegetable garden, etc.
In 2014, Clinamen created the cooperative Les Bergers Urbain with the will to become a research and de-velopment center on urban agriculture. Les Bergers Urbain aims to assist the citizens (residents, donors, local businesses) to practice new ways of managing outdoor areas.
Key-actors
Secondary players:
– Valentin Charlot and Pauline Maraninchi, landscaper DPLG.
– Julie Lou-Dubreuilh, architect and construction manager.
– Guillaume Leterrier, territorial ESS developer.
– Simone Schriek, osteopath DO-therapist.
Beneficiaries:
– Private individual
– Co-ownership
– Owners
– Lessors
– Cities
For example : La Condition publique (cultural manufacture of Roubaix) / tourism office of Plaine Commune Grand Paris / Urban area of Marne La Vallée – Val Maubuée / Urban area community Plaine Commune Grand Paris / Bondy Seine Saint-Denis / TEDx / IKEA / Le Fiac
Role of design
If the project initiators do not explicitly refer to design as such, the design thinking approach can be under-lined. The city is perceived as an ecosystem where urban planning is connected to food producing facilities and qualities of public space.
CONTACT (of the editor)
Pauline Maraninchi Organization : Les Bergers Urbains – email: clinamencd@gmail.com
La Cartonnerie
CARTON PLEIN association was formed at the instigation of EPASE in October 2010, around the conception by episode of temporary and experimental public space of 2000m2 : La Cartonnerie. Became playground many stakeholders (universities, developers, neighbors, professionals designing public space, associations, companies, etc.), La Cartonnerie offer a working place to collective projects, multidisciplinary and anchored in the city. This unique public space has became a place of experimentation, a living place where successive workshops, games, arts broadcasts, residences, mixed with various events of the site and its many users.
Key actors
Promoters :
Secondary players :
Beneficiaries :
Role of design
CONTACT (of the editor)
Organization CARTON PLEIN – Email : plein.carton@gmail.com
Kader Mokaddem is a professor of philosophy and aesthetics in Saint-Etienne Higher School of Art and Design. After studies of philosophy, he was an archeologist from 1990 to 1997, developping researches on Early Middle-Ages.
As a researcher in aesthetics, his work focuses on the issues of image as a form of thinking. In Saint-Etienne Higher School of Art (ESADSE), he leads the Laboratory Images, Narrations, Documents (IRD). This research lab in an Art School develops
– a practice of writing by images, questioning the notion of text
– a practice of investigation of reality thanks to the set-up of a network of images, questioning the systems of organizing the representations: collection, anthology, digital neworks of images
– a practice of documentation: questioning the level and status of images to determine forms of reality
– a questioning on visual thinking : mapping and knowledge, visualization by image techniques
The IRD Lab is collaborating with a regional research multidisciplinary network called Labex IMU, focused on the Intelligence of Urban Environments, and labellised as Laboratory of Excellence.
The book arrived freshly printed in Ljubljana on 20th April and it will be launched in Graz on 4th May 2018.
After a great work of case studies collection by all the Human Cities partners, a deep process of analysis by Cité du design, Politecnico di Milano and UIRS, and a nice graphic design elaboration by Audrey Templier, the scientific publication of Human Cities-Challenging the City Scale is released.
Its title: Human Cities / Challenging the City Scale 2014-2018 / Investigation
Glimpse of the book, fresh from the print shop in Ljubljana
As cities organizations are facing major urban and technological transformations, European citizens are taking possession of their cities, collaborating or acting for its renewal. Which kind of tools are set up to think and produce the public space together? How to make these bottom-up initiatives sustainable?
This Investigation is a collaborative research work, made from more than 80 case studies collected by the partners in Europe. They tell about actions led by creative citizens to transform their urban environment. Researchers from Cité du design Saint-Étienne, the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano and Urban Planning Institute of The Republic of Slovenia Ljubljana provide a state of the art of these initiatives. Analysing these multiple examples, they investigate how urban dwellers participate, get organized and collaborate with creative professionals to prototype more liveable cities.
This scientific work published by Cité du design Saint-Étienne is addressed to researchers, practitioners, but also developers or creative citizens.
A large space is dedicated to images, to illustrate concretely this multiple initiatives, all linked by the sense of human scale and collaborative activities.
Our Investigation is both an object of Design research and an incentive to develop experimental and collaborative projects of urban transformation.
The book will be launched on 4th May in Graz for the 10 th festival Design Monat, during the event organized by FH JOANNEUM in presence of all the European partners of the programme. From this day, it will be available in digital version on the Human Cities project website – Case Studies section- and Cité du design Saint-Étienne website – publication section.
This is one of the common productions of the European project Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale . Together the partners will have produced 10 urban experiments in the various partner cities ; an exhibition-lab programmed in the main European Design festivals (next steps: Graz, Design Monat : 4thMay-24th June 2018 and Tallinn, Disainiöö: 10th– 16th September 2018) ; 11 international workshops ; masterclasses ; conferences ; and a final book narrating this experience (released in September 2018).
Josyane Franc is the Head of international affairs for the Cité du Design and Saint-Etienne School of Art and Design (ESADSE). Since 1989, she has been promoting ESADSE by organizing international exhibitions, seminars, special projects, development of partnerships with business and Azimuts, the school’s design review etc. She has set up an international network of exchanges among sixty institutions around the world for the ESADSE. She was part of the founding committee of the International Design Biennial Saint-Etienne in 1998. She is the official representative of the Cité du Design and ESADSE in various international networks: ELIA, CUMULUS, BEDA, Design for all Europe, UNESCO Creative Cities, Centre Jacques Cartier and she coordinates their participation in numerous European and international collaborative projects.
She has co-curated several international traveling exhibitions (French Year in Brazil 2009 ; Tallinn-Riga-Helsinki-Bratislava 2011-2012 ; Graz 2014 ; Gwangju 2015). She also co-curated and coordinated international exhibitions for the Saint-Etienne Biennial (EmpathiCITY in 2013 ; Seoul honour guest exhibition “Vitality, beyond Craft and Design in 2015 ; Detroit Guest City of Honour 2017 ). She led Saint-Etienne application towards the designation as UNESCO Creative City of Design, and she coordinates its activities since its adhesion in November 2010. She is the Project coordinator for the European project Human Cities_ Challenging the City scale led by Cité du design for 2014-2018.
Je participe à la rénovation de mon école ! – I’m participating in the renovation of my school !
Je participe à la rénovation de mon école ! is an experiment born of a common and strong will between socio-cultural center Boris Vian and the Cité du Design, the City of Saint -Etienne, the Academic Inspectorate of the Loire, the DRAC Rhône-Alpes Region and the Rhône Alps to unite in a collective territorial project. The theme of the design is a priority educational entry in Saint-Etienne. The principle is to achieve a design work with students going from idea to realization. This is a typical example of the application of design in the everyday life of young persons of Saint-Etienne.
Key actors
Je participe à la rénovation de mon école !, developed by the Cité du design and socio-cultural center Espace Boris Vian, was built in close partnership with the City of Saint-Etienne, the Direction of departmental services of Education of the Loire, the regional delegation of cultural business Rhône-Alpes and Regional Council Rhône-Alpes.
Je participe à la rénovation de mon école ! binds the renovation of a school with an educational project through a design process. Its intention is to introduce and educate young students to design, from concept to design. Students and teachers exchange, share and build a renovation project with a designer – there a library here circulation spaces, also a canteen, etc.
Role of design
Design is central to the methodology, initiated early by a designer in the Cite du design. The various renovation projects are all led by designers, from the observation of uses, conducting awareness workshops to design and participative design from users (students, teachers, school staff and parents) until the project design (scenarios and plans) and directing with monitoring the work.
The innovation can be found in the setting up approach and methodology: both on the part of municipal services rarely use to design, from the point of view of the school who experiences for the first time the participation of young students at a renovation project, that the part of designers who are involved in an educational project and design whose formal responses are intended to spread. It is the networking of these three actors and their activities that Je participe à la rénovation de mon école ! an exemplary cooperation project.
CONTACT (of the editor)
Caroline d’Auria-Goux – Organization : Cité du design, Saint-Etienne, France – Email : caroline.dauria-goux@citedudesign.com
Isabelle Vérilhac is a Doctor in material chemical physics (University / CNRS Orleans), and lectures in industrial design (Post-Diploma Design 1 Research on material and design). She was director of the Saint Etienne Medical Technologies Centre from 2003 to 2007, and has worked in design, in medical research and development activities. Currently she manage the Head of Business and Innovation department at the Cité du design and, in partnership with territorial communities. She’s in charge of the development and the management of projects for economic, territorial, societal projects. She created and set up the materials resource center and the innovative uses and practices labs (LUPI® ) of the Cité du design and coordinates the European Project IDeALL, Integrating Design for All in Living Labs. She is member of the BEDA (Bureau of European Design Associations).
What does it mean to inhabit a place today ? Which relationship can we have with the environment ? These are some questions that guide the work of Isabelle Daëron. Graduated from Ensci-Les Ateliers (Paris) and School of Art and Design (Reims), Isabelle Daëron designs objects, installations and spaces from a reflection on the living environment and natural elements that constitute it. Among them, Topique-water, a rainwater harvester that transforms rainwater into a drinkable water, Topique-wind, a leaves collector, Topique-sky, a sky mirror. For these works, Isabelle received some prizes : Lille design Prize (2012), Grand Prix de la Création de la Ville de Paris (2013), Audi Talents Awards (2015). Her projects were displayed in CCA Kitakyushu (Japan), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Matadero (Madrid), Complexe Suvilahti (Helsinki).
Isabelle Daëron founded her studio in 2010. She is also involved in research programs for the Research Department of the Cité du design (Saint-Étienne) and teaches at Ensad (National School of Arts Décoratifs) in Paris. She gave an important scientific contribution to the project Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale, as an author and editorial coordinator of the project’s publication Investigation.
An Interview taken from architect Juliana Gotilla of Hypermatière by strategic designer Louisa Vermoere from Brussels.
About a bottom up co-creation space and reactivation of an abandoned brownfield in Crêt-de-Roch. The quarter is situated at the North side of the Saint-Etienne and is struggling with a growing number of abandoned lots and vacant homes.
Juliana Gotilla is a Brazilian architect who works with Captain Ludd association, together with other three designers. During an intensive erasmus periode in Milan in 2006; she underwent a series of participative design experiences among others courses by Ezio Manzini at Politecnico di Milano. After that she was motivated to return to Europe to implement what she was thought. She arrived in 2011 in St-Etienne to study a specialisation in “participatory project development” during a master course called: Public Space: Architecture, Design & Practice. After one year she started working in St-Etienne, where, after six years, she still works. In addition she has become a key figure in the Human Cities experiments of Saint-Etienne.
Captain Ludd is an association by three designers and one architect. It is a design and workshop studio located at the bottom of the other side of the hill in Crêt-de-Roch. Their mission is to find ways to collaborate with people to improve their neighbourhood. All year long we do workshops that submerse people in wood and printing technics. During spring and summer, if we managed to have the authorisation, we create, during wood and printing workshops, in public space. Like this we reach a wider and bigger audience.
Captain Ludd’s headquarters
The interview is left in an informal style, inspired by Hypermatière, a multi-disciplinary project sublimated at an informal place at Place du Coq. During the interview many people came to us. These intermezzo’s are kept to sketch more precisely the atmosphere of the place.
Juliana Gotilla at the opening of Human Citizens Office, an other Human Cities project at Saint-Etienne.
L at the bar: Camille Vilain, coordinator of the Human Cities project, asked me to interview YOU of all the people working on this project. Why would that be so?
J: Because I work a lot (laughs). We won the call for projects, because our project, Hypermatière, matches exactly with the goals put forward by the Human Cities project.
L: Hypermatière was not only created by Captain Ludd but also some other organisations. Who else is involved?
J: In total we are four associations and some independents all with slightly different goals. Amicale Laïque du Crêt de Roch teaches popular education. Rues du développement durable, (free translation: Sustainable development street) is the first association that works on the problematic of vacant properties founded in 2009, and Association de Valorisation de Déchets . Furthermore we have Magalie Rastello who is a research designer, Yai Acosta, a ceramist, Matthieu Benoit Gonin, who is a gardener and Raymond Vasselon, a retired architect from the neighbourhood.
Musician which just proposed to give a concert: Bonsoir, au revoir, Juliana, à demain!
J: Bonne soirée, peut-être à tout à l’heure à l’ouverture d’ Office Human Cities dans rue de la république!?
We form a trans-generational and multidisciplinary team from and for the neighbourhood. Since four years we work together in an informal way. For the Human Cities Call we took the opportunity to name ourselves Hypermatière.
Hey, lets take a place to sit, somewhere.
L: A seat on the bridge. Where would this bridge lead us to? I see… a bar, some constructions that does not immediately reveal what they are, mini golf, art by day, a little greenhouse, photographer Etienne eating some meat from the BBQ, a little co-workspace with a stage along the street and a meeting table, a workshop area, a moving model of the quarter, an unmanned but enthusiastically welcoming desk that can be manned by anybody who wishes to. So what are the goals you are trying to achieve with this project?
J: The last two years we have been working in this street. We were mainly working on the sidewalks which are too narrow. After a two years presence, we felt confident to ask to the authorities to give us a part of this vacant lot, to make an ephemeral common space. So we got a quarter of the land that was the least polluted. In the beginning we were disappointed we did not get the whole lot but now we are glad: we only had to clear partially the plot of all the garbage and activate only a part of it. On top of that the plot isn’t flat but covered with rubble from the former building, which led us to the decision to make a landscape of platforms of different heights. The goal was to respond to the need of the neighbours for a free space for kids to play away from the street. First goal is to make this a common space and second, to activate it.
We aimed to make a trans-generational place where older people can take a seat and young once can play, jump make parkour and others can take some beer or coffee outside to relax. The combination has our installation as a result. Furthermore we have the greenhouse to keep our moral high. The greenhouse was the first thing we installed because we know that during the periode of the Biennale it is still cold and there is a big chance of rain. Next to it we have our workshop and behind you can see our ‘hypermateriothèque’, which is made of leftovers which I gathered from nearby companies during three weeks proceeding the construction. I first called to hear what they had, we came to pick it up only the day before constructing and we took only the materials we needed to avoid to leave the plot as it was before; a vacant plot with garbage. This was only possible since we had an idea of what to construct. This idea was developed together with the students of l’école de Beaux-Arts in Saint-Etienne (ESADSE).
We had already a refined idea of what is available to be reused because those materials were used in the previous biennale.
… the conversation gets paused by a representative of an association from the neighbourhood whom proposes to collaborate…
The whole process of constructing and activating this ‘vacant lot’ took place organically, I will sketch you our timeline how we proceeded. In the beginning of February I was calling all the factories to ask to leave the leftovers aside until we would start constructing. I called to understand what they had in stock. The day before the construction started I rented a truck to pick up all the building material to have it all here just before the building started.
L: Some materials come back in other exhibitions of the biennale. For example these ropes. Is the company that produces those ropes nearby?
J: No, actually there are quite some climbing halls in Saint-Etienne because of the proximity of the Alpes. Every six months the company taking care of the those climbing infrastructures needs to replace the ropes. Before the ropes were supposed to be sold to Africa but instead for years someone stole those loads that were to be shipped. After that scandal we were offered a big load of ropes which are now stocked in our studio. When we started the design with the students, the ropes, of course pallets and these tubes were at the top of the list of materials to be used. The tubes were also reused at the last biennial that’s why we knew were to get them. The flooring are the leftovers of the Detroit exhibition which was offered by the scenographer of the biennial who lives in this street. The irregular forms of these leftovers are now used during workshops with the kids of the neighbourhood. Last Tuesday we finished the structure. The finishing of the details will take place during each workshop in the coming month.
We constructed together with the kids the poultry run, but a neighbour complained about the aesthetics of it. We invited him to come and fix it. The next day he finished the details.
Our goal was to create a public space but more we wanted to create relationships. Our presence at the site during good and bad weather made us get the respect and meet our neighbours.
L: Could you elaborate on what were/are the biggest challenges of the project?
J: People like what they are seeing, take pictures and tell us how magnificent it is. But basically what this place does not communicate is the process that proceeded it. A bottom up process, like we initiated, does not provide the structural support a cultural institution/centre has for the organisation of events. We learned out of this experience that 80% was meetings, 20% of our time went into building the place. Now it is constructed, we are spending time to activate the place, which is completely on a volunteering base. I talked during this festival with a colleague of mine from Detroit and she explained that she spends 50% of her time looking for funds for her designs. She realised it is better to collaborate with institutions that have the structural budget for the organisation. The challenge for us is how to make these bottom up processes framed and transparently communicated. What we are trying to do is to make urban space shared, although we do it in less conventional ways, we believe it caries the same goals of public authorities. Here we built a frame where everybody can participate in creating this shared space together.
L: As a Human Citizen, what would be your advice?
J: Be humble, do not be selfish and valorise all the people equally. Take care of the whole team, because it is this relationship that creates new relationships in the neighbourhood. The same you should be towards the community you work with. You are not giving them aesthetics but you are creating together a shared space.
L: What is your biggest dream for the future?
J: Today was my dream, I am happy to be here on such a sunny day.
Related story:
This conference is part of the initiative of Human Cities 2014-2018 program. Organized by the Cité du design, this conference was about the workshop and the idea of Crossroads 2015, part of the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2015 program. It took place on 17 March 2015 from 5 PM until 8 PM at Cité du design , and gathered the international workshops “Human Cities” and “All Champions-People Olympics”, and their relative participants from international networks : Human Cities, UNESCO Creative Cities Network, Living Labs, People Olympics.
Keynote speaker Charles Landry, researcher, inventor of the “Creative Cities” concept was invited to give his expert point of you on these initiatives using design to make a more active and human creative cities. European Commission expert Marc-Hector Vanderhaegen introduced the Creative Europe Program, framework of Human Cities 2014-2018 project.
When Cité du design, Saint-Etienne launched its Collective Humancitizens Office of StÉtienne Experimentations in October 2015, a group of stakeholders of Cret de Roch district decided to answer the call and launch labs to experiment the transformations of the “hidden face” of the district, around Neyron street.
They are designers, former architect very involved in the community and popular education associations, artists, gardener, managers of associations in charge of social economy (creation of new services in vacant premises , upcycling and repair economy, services between neighbours)… For more than 10 years, they all have taken part in the activities which give a new dynamic to this popular district on a hill : on the lower part, at the edge of city center ; on the top where residents have set up community gardens… but what about the middle part ?
The members of Hypermatiere group ©hypermatiere
The Neyron street is a bit forgotten, crossed by the cars, with several brownfields. It will be the object of urban renovations by the urban planning agency. How to imagine the evolutions of this area within the time ? How to involve the inhabitants in these transformations ? How to imagine the future without planning heavy structures, but whether reversible interventions adapted to the evolutive uses of the spaces by the inhabitants ? How to enable inhabitants to be creative actors of the transformations of their district, whether than worried spectators ?
Hypermatière multidisciplinary was set up to offers mobile, evolutive, reversible and recyclable interventions to experiment the various temporalities linked to the uses that accompany the development of a changing neighbourhood.
It began with small actions : painting the stairs and planting flowers in a passage crossing the hill with the children of the district, to make it more convivial and reveal this spaces. Collecting the wild fauna of the brownfields and printing them on ceramic tiles. The urban planning agency gave the group premises in a vacant building to make their activities. From there, the group organized several workshops in July and October 2016, urban walks to discover the district … . Each activity is an opportunity to reach the inhabitants and question them on their perception and ideas about the district . Which are its distinctive features ? which kind of services or facilities would they need to make it more alive ?
These workshops were also a way of gathering the various associations of the neighbourhood in oder to transfer their collective dynamic to this area.
Coloured and planted staircase in Passage Neyron”, which connects the lower and higherparts of the hill © Hypermatiere
The next step : a collaborative construction work from 27th February to 7th March 2017 on the major brownfield of the street, with students of a professional highschool and Saint-Etienne school of Art design, volunteers from the neighbourhood and the city, to build a micro-architecture and set-up some green area. It will create a temporary public space to welcome numerous workshops and conversations during the Biennale Internationale Saint-Etienne 2017. It will show the process and the relevance of these contributing practices.
The program of the workshops and meetings is available (in French) on the group facebook page : @hypermatiere
These workshops take partly place during the 10e Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne within the frame of Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale/ Saint-Etienne 2017. More info about its programme and activities you can find here in FR and EN.
Hypermatière is a pluridisciplinary group set up in Cret de Roch district, Saint-Etienne. It was born from the Collective HumanCitizens Office of StEtienne Experimentations (C.H.O.S.E) launched by Cité du design to promote bottom-up collective urban experiences through Human Cities program.
The group is composed by
Together they initiate a serie of actions with the inhabitants of the district, to experiment the current and future possible transformations of Cret de de Roch district, in the area nearby the Rue Neyron and La Fontaine passage through the hill. They propose temporary installations which are low-cost, scalable, reversible, recyclable, to observe and experiment the various temporalities linked to people uses when a long-term renewal project is undergoing in a district like Cret de Roch.
The aim is showing the process and the relevance of collaborative practices . Hypermatière highlights a kind of “space in movement” at a district scale , a space offering its inhabitants the opportunity of becoming active subjects that are aware of the trnasformations they live everyday.
https://www.facebook.com/hypermatiere/
Hypermatière pluridisciplinary group, born from C.H.O.S.E in Saint-Etienne holds an experimentation lab called “Hyperactivité( “hyperactivity”) in , Cret de Roch district, rue Neyron from 12th to 16th October 2016.
Designed as an open laboratory, Hyperactivité shares the spirit of transformation performed by Hypermatière group in this micro-area since March 2016. The ephemeral laboratory space situated 25 rue Neyron will be open to the public. People will be invited to discover the temporary installations made with designers, artists, gardeners, children, and residents to give more life and colours on the façades and stairs of rue Neyron and La Fontaine passage through the hill of Cret de Roch. Free laboratories of making and repairing will be proposed to neighbours and citizens. Open discussions are organized to share ideas and thoughts about the future of this district under renewal, to collect inhabitants uses, wishes, and visions.
PROGRAMME
**Wednesday 12th October 2016 – 14.00-18.00**
Ceramics lab – Capturing the print of Cret de Roch vegetation on ceramic tiles – by Magalie Rastello et Yai Acosta
Repair lab – houshold appliances – by John
TEA-SNACK TIME at 16.30 !
**Thursday 13th October 2016 – 14.00 – 17.00**
Open discussion on the reconversion of vacant shops – by Rues du Développement Durable association
Repair lab – bicycle – by Ocivélo association
**Friday 14th October 2016 -15.00 – 18.00**
Repair lab – furniture – by Captain Ludd design studio
Repair lab – houshold appliances – by John
DRINK at 18.00!
**Saturday 15th October 2016 – 10.00 – 16.00***
Ceramics lab – Capturing the print of Cret de Roch vegetation on ceramic tiles – by Magalie Rastello et Yai Acosta
Co-constrution workshop : building an information board for the district – by Captain Ludd design studio
Repair lab – bicycle – by Ocivélo association
BARBECUE between 12.00 and 14.00 !
https://www.facebook.com/events/158418377947231/
“Re-thinking the contemporary city through the prism of a multi-level network”.This what the UNESCO considered as exemplary for the sustainable development of cities in the case of the project Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale. On 18th October 2016, UNESCO officially launched in Quito its “Global Report, Culture: Urban Future“. A rich (300 p) document gathering case studies and recommendations to support governments in the implementation of cultural policies for sustainable urban development. It means a great acknowledgement for the Human Cities partners and a great encouragement to continue the dialogue between creators, citizens and insititutions to shape the futures of the cities.
Actually, one specificity of our project is that, amongst its 12 partners, 5 of them are from cities members of the UNESCO Creative Cities network : Bilbao, Graz, Helsinki, Ljubljana, and Saint-Etienne. It has been proposed by the leader Cité du design, from Saint-Etienne, when building the project. Involving UNESCO creative cities allows a major international impact of its actions, reaching policy makers and researchers using UN resources. On the other hand, it gives a concrete example of collaboration within this relatively new network of cities established by the UNESCO to to strengthen the development of local cultural industries as a factor of sustainable development.
The selection of Human Cities case studies for this Global Report comes just after its presentation in an exhibition and conference in Ostersund, Sweden, during the General Assembly of UNESCO Creative Network in September 2016. The Cité du design Saint-Etienne proposed the project as a part of a Good Practice exhibition. Josyane Franc, its coordinator, which is also the coordinator for Saint-Etienne UNESCO Creative City of Design presented it on 15th September 2016 to an impressive and multicultural assembly of at least 500 people coming from 116 cities from 54 countries.
Integral UNESCO report: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002459/245999e.pdf
UNESCO Creative Cities Network General Assembly in Ostersund: http://creativegastronomy.com/uccn2016/
After Milan in April 2016 and Belgrade in Februry 2017 , Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale will meet the audience in France at Biennale Internationale Design Saint Etienne 2017.
For its 10th edition, the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne will be held from 9th March to 9th April 2017. Organized by Cité du design, it will focus on the general theme “Working Promesse. Shifting work paradigmes”. Since its first edition in 1998, the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne, has gained an international reputation in the design field, attracting more than 200 000 visitors. The aim is to reveal the current state of design and creativity worldwide and to invite visitors to question themselves on the evolution of societies and on new ways of life.
Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale will be a core event of this Biennial, with an exhibition-lab, a conference, a workshop and the regular meeting of the projects’partners. Human Cities event will be proposed during the week dedicated to Cité du design international networks, and its activities will mix Human Cities , BEDA, Design for All and Living Lab partners, as well as local designers, associations and policy makers involved in Human Cities Saint-Etienne project.
The Human Cities exhibition lab will be displayed in 4 locations :
PROGRAMME
Monday 13th March 2017
9.00-16.00 : Workshop Human Cities
An urban walk visiting, meeting and testing the activities of Saint-Etienne Human Cities experimentations:Cité du design exhibition
Ici-Bientôt:40 rue de la Résistance
Human Citizens Office : 8 rue de la République
Hypermatière : 25 rue Neyron
Open to : Human Cities partners, international designers, local communities and public stakeholders
17.00-20.00 : Conference Human Cities at Cité du design auditorium
– Keynote speakers :
Maurizio Carta – University of Palermo, Italy
Anya Sirota – Akoaki design studio – Detroit, USA
– Human Cities European Partners
– Saint-Etienne Human Citizens
Open to : general audience, international partners, local authorities representatives
Tuesday 14th March 2017
09.00-17.00 : Human Cities technical meeting (Human Cities partners only)
18.30 : Official opening of Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale /Saint-Etienne 2017 (8 rue de la République)
One of the most important outcomes of the previous Human Cities festival in 2012/ Reclaiming public space was the development of a Toolbox. The Toolbox is a collection of tools or toolkits, developed to let people take action in their cities or neighbourhoods. The Toolbox was conceived under the direction of Politecnico di Milano and Cité du Design and coordinated by Strategic Design Scenarios.
After Milan and Belgrade, the exhibition of the project Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale was set up in Biennale Internationale Saint-Etienne 2017 from 9th March to 9th April 2017. To maximize the visibility and exchanges with the public, the exhibition had 3 forms and locations
The Cité du design Saint-Etienne built the exhibition concept together with the designer Jean-Sébastien Poncet. Like the title of the project “challenging the city scale”, the exhibition was based on the different scales of actions led by the Human Cities partners in their experimentations and in some inspiring case studies selected from the Human Cities State of the art : from the street to the district, to the whole city, the landscape or the virtual scale. Videos and totem objects were telling the particular process and methodologies implemented in each city to involve local partners and citizens : the “Jakomini radio” broadcasting the sounds of Jakomini street in Graz, the kilim carpets of the thinktents used to make colletive discussions for the playgrounds in Belgrad, the model of insect-house made with the children of Ljubljana before the installation in real scale in their district etc.
From the human, body scale to the street, district, the whole city and even the virtual scale, everywhere in Europe the city is a field of action for creative people together with the citizens. Cities are transforming. They become a world of networks, connections and multipolarity. Alongside with the traditionnal place makers, new experts are getting involved to create vibrant urban environments adapted to the transformations of the city life. They are designers, architects, artists, community associations, festivals, creative industries, leading bottom-up initiatives as and with residents to transform the city.
Occupying vacant buildings to test new ways of working or learning ; federating the makers community to contribute to the development of a district; activating and improving the quality of public spaces involving cultural and associative stakeholders, users, residents etc. ; we wanted to show to the public that in Europe today, initiatives are taking place everywhere.
Full catalogue of the exhibition can be viewed here:Human Cities-StEtienne-exhibition catalogue
The design and concept for this app – which will be available to download from April 2016– was developed by three creative minds from Graz. Miriam Derler, Andrea Hutter and Miriam Weiss, all of them master students of Communication Design at the University of Applied Sciences, designed an interactive exhibition catalogue where users stand in the spotlight. The main idea was to create a catalogue, which you can not only browse but also be part of yourself. Therefore, all visitors of exhibitions have the possibility to upload their pictures, videos and remarks, which can then be seen in the app and on video screens in public space. In addition, a scan function allows participants to retrace authors of pictures as well as to leave comments. So everybody can be part of the app and the whole Human Cities Community. Due to this fact, a good mix of many different perspectives from various people can arise since everybody has a different design approach. With this app, the three designers successfully managed to connect the digital with the real world.
So participate yourself! Download the app in April and enjoy!
Locations : Cité du design – EXPO 10
Human Cities Office – 8 rue de la République
Ici bientôt – 40 rue de la Résistance – rue de la Ville
Hypermatière – 50 rue Neyron
Official Opening : 14th March 2017 at 18.30
Curatorship: Cité du design – International Affairs department and Design Management for local authorities department
Exhibition design : Jean-Sébastien Poncet and .CORP
Occupying vacant buildings to test new ways of working or learning; federating the makers community to contribute to the development of a district; activating and improving the quality of public spaces involving cultural and associative stakeholders, users, residents etc. A non exhaustive list of experiences made by the 12 partners(1) of the European project européen Human Cities_ Challenging the City Scale led by Cité du design Saint-Etienne from 2014 to 2018 within the framework of the du programme Creative Europe/Culture of the European Union.
Human Cities questions the scales and the co-creation of the city. Saint-Etienne has got a distinctive feature of a creative laboratory, where hands-on stakeholders develop methodologies and actions with the communities to transform the city. The Cité du design has created C.H.O.S.E (Collective Humancitizens Office of St Étienne Experimentations), a tool to stimulate and connect these local energies and creative forces, with the support of the City of Saint-Etienne and EPASE.
Within this framework, three multidisciplinary groups proposed their initiatives:
– Ici bientôt (Coming Soon) : a revitalization of vacant and active shops in rue de la Ville street, Beaubrun district. Partners : CREFAD Loire ; Carton plein ; Typotopy ; le Centre social du Babet ; le CIDFF de la Loire ; Collectif X ; Zoomacom ; l’Ecole de l’Oralité ; la Louce …and other structures joining the project in progress
– Hypermatière : co-creation activities with the residents of Crêt de Roch district to enrich the renovation project of rue Neyron. Partners : Captain Ludd ; l’Amicale laïque du Crêt de Roch ; Rues du Développement Durable ; l’association de valorisation des déchets ; Magalie Rastello ; Esther Yai Acosta Valois ; Mathieu Benoit Gonin.
– Playing with the city perceptions’ scales and surprizing point of views : a project by the Laboratory “Images, Récits, Documents” of Saint-etienne Higher School of Art and Design
The experimentations developed by international and local partners are presented in the exhibition-lab Human Cities on the Manufacture site and in a dedicated space rue de la République. An urban circuit links these sites and the initiatives led by Saint-Etienne multidisciplinary groups in the Crêt de Roch and Beaubrun neighbourhoods.
(1) European Partners : Cité du design Saint-Étienne [FR] ; Politecnico di Milano, Milan [IT] ; Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana [SI] ; Clear Village, London[UK] ; Zamek Cieszyn [PL] ; Design Week Belgrade [RS] ; Pro Materia, Bruxelles [BE] ; Aalto University, Helsinki [FI] ; FH Joanneum, Graz [AT] ; Association of Estonian Designers, Tallinn [EST] ; BEAZ/Bilbao-Bizkaia Design&Creativity Council, Bilbao [ES] ; CultureLab, Bruxelles [BE].
Biennale internationale design Saint-Etienne website
On 13th September 2018 , during the final event of Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale in Tallinn, happy partners launched a very important common production : the human cities 2014-2018 project book : Challenging the City Scale, journeys in People-Centred Design.
This 176 pages book is released by the famous international publisher Birkhäuser, and co-edited by Cité du design Saint-Etienne and Clear Village London, with the contributions of all the partners and invited authors. After a 1st publication oriented on research and inspirational case studies, this final book is the story of our experiences and cooperation addressed to a large audience of people interested in urban design and practices .
Since 2014, the Human Cities network has been working on Challenging the City Scale to question the urban scale and investigate cocreation in cities. The Human Cities partners have carried out urban experimentations in 11 European cities empowering citizens to rethink the spaces in which they live, work and spend their leisure time. Through conversations with people involved, the book examines how bottom-up processes and their design, tools and instruments generate new ideas to reinvent the city. It offers inspiration and insights to everyone, from practitioners and politicians to designers and active citizens, eager to try out new ways to produce more human cities together.
Our project can be seeen as a journey in people-centred design.
To prepare it, we asked Alice Holmberg, a designer and co-creation expert, to help each partner start their experiment through co-creative sessions. She explains in her article her approach to participatory design, and how she established a co-creation framework that was applied in a variety of contexts.
After the co-creative sessions, each partner departed on their own journey. For example, our partners in Saint-Étienne, Graz, Bilbao, Helsinki and London worked with citizens to turn vacant or
underused spaces into test sites for new solutions for work, service provision, education and communication. In Ljubljana, Belgrade, Cieszyn, Tallinn, Brussels and Milan, our partners joined forces with citizens to contribute to the development of a neighbourhood through improving the quality of public spaces. We invited two journalists, Côme Bastin and Fleur Weinberg, to capture the stories of the experiments in each of the 11 partner cities. These stories compose the main part of this book.
The variety of experiments allowed us to learn from each other. It also gave some hints for citizens, designers, and decision makers (insitutions and developers) which would like initiate that kind of actions. These learnings are shared in the third part of the book, written by Robin Houterman from a collective reflection led by all the partners.
We asked two urban experts to provide a context for our stories. John Thackara, a writer-philosopher, explains the importance of understanding the notion of the city “as a living system”. His chapter emphasises the need to take care of our commons, a term that includes the spaces, memories, knowledge, skills, culture and biodiversity that we all share.
Anya Sirota, founder of and architect at Akoaki, shares with us her experiences from Detroit, USA. In a context of severe urban decline, Akoaki designs architectural interventions, art objects,
and social environments that aim to make an impact far beyond their physical appearances.
As a conclusion – or an introduction to the next journeys to come – Olivier Peyricot and Josyane Franc re-question the topic of bottom-up initiatives in the global context of city making. Could active citizen be the sole driving forces of the tranformations in contemporary cities? How to collectively take responsibility and act for the global challenges facing our urban societies ?
Since its start, the Human Cities project has led to a network of “Human Citizens” distributing their knowledge and skills across Europe, and beyond as well by making use of the network of UNESCO Creative Cities of Design. By writing this book, we hope to expand this network of Human Citizens even further. We hope that by sharing our enthusiasm and experiences, the book will be an inspiration and a valuable reference for those inclined to become involved themselves. Moreover, we want to convince policy and decision makers of the value of these initiatives and inspire them to take action to facilitate them better in the future.
Human Cities counts many European and local partners – among which Saint-Étienne-based Carton Plein plays an important role. During the International Design Biennale Saint Etienne and “Crossroads 2015” workshop, 16 to 17 March 2015, both initative with endeavour to show how it is possible to revive a district by converting vacant shops into interactive work-spaces. Within the Jacquard district, Carton Plein has transformed a former Casino supermarket into the B.E.A.U – a temporary urban action office for collective experimentation. The new venue seeks to make the city a more cooperative and fair place. The aim of the scheme is to stimulate the emergence of new services – re-inhabiting space, to bring new life to a district. This initiative adheres to the Human Cities’ 13 values.
European canteen
EQuAMA is an association that aims to improve the management, promotion and animation of the European Quarter in Brussels. Acting as a laboratory, EQuAMA is testing new ways of using public space and wants to attract users and visitors to lively, animated public spaces. EQuAMA will gradually transform public spaces into Urban Lifestyle Points (ULP) by thinking, creating and making the space live. This association called upon the creativity of Talking Things (design agency) to help imagine tomorrow’s public space of the European Quarter. Talking Things developed an urban strategy based on an experimental approach by testing lightweight and compact urban furnitures or micro-architectures. “European Quarter Lab’ proposes to test new ways of using public space by building a critical platform consisting of citizens, users, politicians, scientific people with a critical regard in relation to the desired future European quarter.
European Canteen was the first experimentation of European Qurter Lab’
The challenge consisted in proving that the quality of the European Quarter also lies in the variety and proximity of several actors and the fact that they share a common space. This notion of sharing was introduced by designing an urban furniture. A first design was conceived for the public spaces in the European Quarter. The experimental element consists in playing with the options of sharing a giant table and how this furniture can interact with the different public spaces. The 70 tables are mobile and their place and shape are change in order to test new way to improve the public spaces.
Key-actors
Main Promoters
• The Cité du design and the City of Saint-Etienne launched a call for urban furniture in public spaces tested during the Biennal International Design Saint Etienne 2015.
• « European canteen » is a project initiated by ASBL EQUAMA and developed by Talking Things to improve quality of public spaces Brussels’ European quarter.
Secondary players
• City of Saint-Etienne gave financial support to this project, provided equipment, authorisations, staff and technical support. Municipal carpentry department produced the furniture in the framework of “Banc d’essai” call for the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2015.
Beneficiaries
• Saint-Etienne residents
• Local merchants, customers and users of takeaway shops in Place de l’Hôtel de Ville
• Passers-by
• Visitors of the Biennal
• Workers around the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville
Role of design
• Design explicit: “European Canteen” is composed of simple modular tables allowing a thousand ways to create a public canteen in a park or to be settled next to a foodtruck. The simple and easy installation (4 screws per table, less than 30 minutes to build a table for 50 person) allows several options from neighbourhood event to collaborative montage with residents, associations and city actors.
• Public space : Main issue = Adapt a table model originally designed for urban parks to a new urban environment : a mineral public square.
• Co-design: Municipal carpentry staff produced tables from a pattern designed by Talking Things.
Prototyping :
a- Mould construction for cement table’s legs and production of wooden boards
b- Designers’ observations :
After a first prototype, “European Canteen” designers went to the municipal carpentry workshop to check look, resistance (cement legs, wooden boards) and ergonomic shape of the table. Changes have been made and then manufacturing process had been launched. Also in-house solutions had been founded to produce a two-template mould for a better efficiency.
CONTACT (of the editor)
Léa Pruykemaquere – Organisation: Cité du design, pôle territoire – Email: lea.pruykemaquere@citedudesign.com
CONFERENCE HUMAN CITIES_CHALLENGING THE CITY SCALE
Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2017
Cité du design – Auditorium
After the launch of the project and a first workshop in 2015, Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale comes back in Saint-Etienne for the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2017, to share with the audience the experiences and findings of this European Project.
The Conference will be a presentation of international, European and local experiments carried out by collectives of creative citizens to contribute to the development of a neighbourhood, improve the quality of public spaces and re-invent the city.
PROGRAMME
17.00 : Welcome addresses : Josyane Franc and Camille Vilain
International Affairs Cité du design, Coordination of the European Project Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale
17.10 : Introduction : Gaël Perdriau
Mayor of Saint-Etienne, President of Saint-Etienne Metropolis and Cité du design- ESADSE
17.25 : The Paradigm of Augmented City : Maurizio Carta
Urban planner and architect, President of the Polytechnic School of the University of Palermo, Italy
17.45 : Fancy That : Anya Sirota
Designer, co-founder of Akoaki design studio, Detroit, Assistant Professor at University of Michigan
18.05 – 18.30 : Human Cities experiment labs developed in Saint-Etienne
Ici-bientôt / Hypermatière / Échelles de regards urbains
18.30 -19.00 : : Human Cities experiment labs developed in Europe
Maker Mile– Clear Village, London / La Piana – Politecnico di Milano / Kragujevac Creative Grand Park – Belgrade Design Week/ Bratovševa ploščad – Urban Institute of Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana
19.00 : Conclusion by Josyane Franc
Registration :registration form
The Cité du Design will lead various experimentations on Saint-Etienne territory in 2015-2017. One of the topics is to tackle the retails and street level spaces. In the contemporary urban context, the classic city, with its town center and its suburbs, disappears to make way for a world of networks, connections, of multi- polarity. The flows of traffic – carried by land, sea or digital routes, take over from places. These structural evolutions are impacting both people and spaces , like the shops in the city centres. How to invent innovative proposals to activate these spaces and scales ?
Leader of the project Human Cities_challenging the city scale, the Cité du design Saint-Etienne is a platform of research, higher education, economic development, design and art promotion, carried by the City of Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne Metropolis, and the Rhône-Alpes Region (Ministry of Culture). The Cité du Design and School of Art and Design of Saint-Etienne converge since 2005 in a same structure around a common objective: to develop research through creative acts. Since January 2010, they are grouped Under a Public body of Cultural Cooperation (EPCC).
The Cité du design approach is a human-centred design. A design that enhances the practices and ways of life. that it optimizes the energy, that it accompanies the habitat mutations or facilitates the development of health and mobility.
Chez Albert
Chez Albert project is carried out on a proposal of La Semeuse in the context of a residence at the Laboratoires d’ Aubervilliers.
Key actors
Main promoters:
– Yes We Camp was born during the Camping Marseille 2013 project (an artistic and alternative project of ephemeral base camp that was built in 2013 on the banks of the Lave à l’Estaque). It is a multidisciplinary group constituted of architects, engineers, botanists, urban planners, artists, gardeners, handymen, designers, etc. These different actors gathered to create a laboratory for urban forms of nomadism, with travelers coming from all over to settle temporarily in the city’s public space, intuitively searching for enjoyable new ways of living multi-place lives.
– La Semeuse is part of The Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers (art center). It was born from collaboration between the artist/architect Marjetica Potrc and Severine Roussel, Philippe Zourgane, both architects in Aubervilliers intended to connect plant biodiversity and cultural diversity of the city. Currently coordinated by Ingrid Amaro, in 2011 the project was developed by landscaper : Guilain Roussel and Margaux vineyard. La Semeuse got the support of the Regional Council of Île-de-France, department of Seine Saint-Denis, CAF (Family Allowance Fund) of the Seine Saint-Denis, the ACSE (National Agency for social cohesion and equal opportunities), the city of Aubervilliers, Lapeyre and the Fondation de France.
– Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers (law 1901 association) is a place for experimentations, explorations, research and creation by the establishment of art projects. They are built in connection with the implementation context but also in relation with publics and artists. The projects uses all artistic practices: visual art, dance, theater, literature, etc, to create new forms of meetings, interactions of “living together”. The association is funded by the City of Aubervilliers, the General Council of the Seine Saint-Denis, the Regional Council of Île-de-France, the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs of Ile-de- France, the Ministry of Culture and of Communication
Secondary players :
Beneficiaries :
The residents and visitors
Role of design
The transformation of an old wasteland into a cohabitation space for various events (musicals evenings, workshops for self-repair), questions the ways of involving citizens in the design of public space. The goal is simple : to emerge collective uses and succeed that this space of 3000 m² is appropriate and used by locals, after the destruction of existing buildings and before the construction of new buildings.
Chez Albert questions the future uses of this wasteland but also the mission of the inhabitants. It suggests new urbanity (meeting place, mutual aid, friendliness, etc.).
The major goal of the project is to imagine participative process. Concerts, shows, table tennis tournament, as many low-cost applications for communities and able to create spaces for cohabitation.
CONTACT (of the editor)
Collectif Yes We Camp
Address : 5, avenue Antoine Perrin
F-13 007 Marseille
Email : info@yeswecamp.org
Projet Chez Albert
Address : 52, rue Écuyer
117, boulevard Jean Jaurès
93300 Aubervilliers
Email : vienschezalbert@gmail.com
Camille Vilain has been manager of international projects at Cité du design since 2008. After studies in Political Sciences and Management of Cultural Projects in Grenoble and Lyon, she had some work experiences in Italy and joined the Cité du design, Saint-Etienne, France in 2008. Inside the International Affairs team, she coordinates the international projects of Cité du design (Design Center). She works on the activities linked with the European and international design networks, European projects and international touring exhibitions. She participated in 5 Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne since 2008, coordinating special events for international network of Art Schools (CUMULUS), international conferences and forums (Entretiens Jacques Cartier, EmpathiCITY, Forum of UNESCO Creative Cities of Design, Human Cities). She is the project manager of the European Project Human Cities_Challenging the City Scale 2014 – 2018, Program Creative Europe : Culture , led by Cité du design together with 11 other partners.
The first action of C.H.O.S.E is to launch a call for initiatives for local actors in order to establish an experimental program in 2016 – 2017 (see calendar below)
The result of this call for initiatives was very rich: 4 local actors came forward and presented their initiatives.
Recent updates:
We have met these four groups of actors collectively and individually which was the opportunity for them to present themselves, their initiatives but also their visions and goals.
During those meetings we discussed the details of their initiatives and we debated and reflected upon ways to mix their know-hows and cross-disciplinary approaches to challenge the urban transformations in Saint-Etienne!
Our next meeting is planned for the end of April and the goal is to see how exactly the experimentations will take place!
During the International Design Biennial Saint-Etienne, Banc d’essai provides an opportunity for designers, companies and publishers to test their life-size imagination and produce urban objects – comparing them to the public space and offer users – visitors, residents, shopkeepers and managers of public services – a new expertise.
This initiative addresses several issues such as how to live in the city? How to decorate and animate our public spaces? How to forge stronger ties between generations and to give shape to the appropriation of space for all? It is within these parameters that public environments come alive. Where needs are expressed, practices are created. Uses becoming clearer: siting, eating, reading, playing, working, learning, calling or just looking around.
This approach is highlighted by many outdoor exhibitions created through different workshops such as the one head by three winning ESADSE graduates – Céline Renaudie & Maxime Burnichon, Astrid Amadieu and Carol Landriot, and Michaël Paquet with street furniture manufacturer Tôlerie Forézienne (TF). This workshop has created the conditions for an innovative and generous project, reconnecting urban design with the city and its users, enriched with a quest for beauty, usefulness and sustainable. The winners are able to participate to the Banc d’essai during the Biennial for a month.
This year’s Banc d’essai course will take place across Saint-Étienne from 12 March to 12 April 2015.
Atelier Toboggan – Urban Street Slide Workshop
Introduced by the Captain Ludd designers, this participative workshop of manufacturing a “urban street slide workshop” aimed at creating a moment of meeting around a do-it-yourself activity with the the Crêt-de-Roch inhabitants. The project also marks the launch of a programming action in favors of the inhabitants who will regularly be invited to exchange around micro-projects. Times of initiation will then give way to real participative construction works going to the direction of a district life to be improved.
Key actors
Main Promoter: the Captain Ludd designers collaborated with the inhabitants (children and adults) of the Crêt de Roch district for the “slide workshop”.
Secondary players: the students of the Saint-Etienne College of Art and Design (ESADSE) and the passers-by.
Beneficiaries: this playful device allowed to lead the public place, for an evening time, by allowing to play in the street. The beneficiaries were also the inhabitants of Saint-Etienne which visited or the passers-by.
Role of design
Co-design and participatory practices
The Captain Ludd designers works on games interfaces and interactive events at the same time in order to gather designers, public and inhabitants to establish a global thinking about esthetics notions, conception and manufacturing.
“Urban street slide workshop” was made during an opening to the public of Captain Ludd studio. “Urban street slide workshop” was drawn and conceived from raw materials of recovery, wood and cardboard. Materials thus led the shape, but also the assembly and required an adaptation of the designer’s tool for the specific work.
Brussels, Thursday 4 February 2016.
Before we accelerate HUMAN CITIES 2015-2018, Challenging the City Scale, we let you (re)discover a snapshot of the past through the eyes of the oldest partners. The Human Cities project and network was initiated by Pro Materia in Brussels in 2006 and has now spread in different cities all over Europe. To find out more about the past I, Louisa Vermoere, interviewed three ‘historic’ partners: Researcher Laura Galluzzo and Prof. Davide Fassi at the Polimi Desis Lab of the Politecnico di Milano, Matej Nikšič of UIRS: Urban Planning institute of the republic of Slovenia in Ljubljana and Camille Vilain of Cité du design in Saint-Etienne.
«Les vieux beaux»
Where are the old municipal furniture elements ? Abraded, damaged or broked, they remain an excellent material. By repairing and transforming them, the ETC Collective create new objects, with revisited functions and uses. These items can then be used as tools for fitting out public spaces.
During the 2015 Biennal, a Ephemeral Bureau for Urban Activation (B.E.A.U in french) was settled for a time of experimentation by Carton Plein in collaboration with ETC Collective and EPASE.
Several initiatives, experimentations and prototypes as « Les vieux beaux » took place in the new Grand Gonner Street in Jacquard disctrict. This project seeks to grow vitality of the territory, reinvestment of vacant ground floor and neglected streets. The aim is to inject and boost a real collective action.
Key actors
Promoters :
Secondary players :
Beneficiaries :
Role of design
The ETC Collective is an association who essentially works on urban spaces experimentation. Their projects focus on participative, artistic and social approach, that question public environment and new behaviors it gives rise.
For « Les Vieux beaux », they wanted to divert, repappropriate and give new uses to old municipal furniture of Saint-Etienne.
Exhibition « Saint-Etienne changes design, French capital of design » .
From 2nd of April till 12th of September 2016 at BASE Milano (ex Ansaldo) Zona Tortona next to the MUDEC (Museum of Cultures) – Within the framework the XXI International Exhibition Triennale di Milano “Design after Design”
To answer the topic “Design after Design”, the Cité du design Saint-Etienne conceived an exhibition presenting an UNESCO creative city of Design. The exhibition “Saint-Etienne changes design” demonstrates the shift of an industrial city that, despite the crises, invents new development driving forces. It is a changing city that innovates, experiments and enhances the living conditions of the local population, facilitates the co-creation and transforms its territory in a living laboratory thanks to design.
“Ici Bientôt” ( = “Coming soon”) is the first workshop of Saint-Etienne experimentation lab C.H.O.S.E Beaubrun (Collective Humancitizens Office of StEtienne Experimentations)
C.H.O.S.E Beaubrun aims at giving to Beaubrun district a new dynamism. This popular area of Saint-Etienne is living a transformation phase with urban renovations and changes of activities. C.H.O.S.E Beaubrun wants to activate its streets and challenge the phenomena of vacant shops. From April 2016 to April 2017, the experimentation lab will gather the communities of the district to use vacant shops as a resource to test the future activities in the area : highlighting the existing shops and shopkeepers, creating a collective reflection to imagine how vacant shops can have a new life. Launched by the Cité du design, CHOSE Beaubrun experimentation lab is led by a collective of associations, designers, artists, community groups, to give the citizens empowerment, and act collectively for their district.
The first workshop of experimentation lab will take place from 7th to 9th June 2016 around “Rue de la ville” street. A vacant shop lent by its owner for the experimentation will welcome a temporary boutique of projects. Participants will enter in immersion in the street, listen to the shopkeepers and passers-by, transform the shop spaces, organize collective brainstormings and question the local authorities, draw new projects with the inhabitants, in order to settle this new dynamic and find how to continue !
Programme
Everyday 10.00 – 12.00 // 15.00 – 17.00
7th June 2016: Shared inventory of the situation.
Where are the empty shops ? Which are the stakes here ? Which specificities of vacancy in this district ? Which future ?
8th June 2016: Ideas and wills ?
Do you have a business or activity set-in project ? You would like to imagine a future for the empty shops of the city ? Do you think there are not enough community shops ? services? Come and let discuss it.
9th June 2016: Act!
How to act collectively ? Who is doing what ? How to communicate properly ? Do we keep the temporary shop ? Ho to federate ? Which are the next steps ?
Blog of the workshop : ici-bientot.org
The Saint-Etienne HumanCitizens of C.H.O.S.E Beaubrun:
– Association Carton Plein : a collective of architects, designers, sociologists, artists… which lead research-actions on urban planning and dynamisations. They were the animators of Human Cities workshop “Crossroads” in 2015 and want to develop in Saint-Etienne a work on vacant shops.
– CRFAD Loire : a community and training association. They coordinate the project with their expertise in solidarity economy, education and community building
– TYPOTOPY (Costanza Matteucc, Kaksi Design studio) : graphic designers with a project about shop windows and signs
– Collectif X : a theatre company which just made a residence in and about the disrict
– La Louce : video and photo artists, graphic designers
– La Maison de quartier Babet : community centre
– CIDIFF : community association for the rights of women and families
– L’Ecole de l’oralité: an association organizing traditional musics workshops in the district
– ZOOMMACOM and Openfactory : fablab, crossmedia, maker workshops
and many others : shopkeepers, artists, architects, residents…
