Studio MA2 (Vigano)

EXPLORATION of the Design Studio

The design studio takes advantage of the Habitat Research Center's research work on the "Atlas of Paris' landscapes", a mandate delivered by the City of Paris and the French State, to read and collect knowledge about the city of Paris. It proposes to address future issues of urban and natural landscapes. Starting from the various paradigm shifts required today, the concepts of perception, adaptation, neo-hygienism and well-being, for both human and non-human subjects, will be critically interrogated to initiate the sketching out of new forms of narratives. Thus, addressing the challenges posed by the evolution of "natural" and "urban" landscapes, together with a growing population, some specific situations/landscapes within the city of Paris will be examined and will become the object of conceptual and future investigations at different scales. New forms of coexistence - between different species, populations and activities, but also with risks - will then be made possible, building scenarios and visions of new living spaces, based on strategies for opening up new relationships, intensifying and adapting the inhabited landscape to climate change and the resulting notion of adaptation.

THEORETICAL FRAME

The Atlas of Paris' landscapes presents a unique opportunity to read the contemporary condition of metropolises in the era of climate change and social tensions. Subjected to a multitude of pressures and socio-eco-political issues, cities are now looking for tools capable of ensuring the sustainability and innovation of their living conditions. Investigating urban and natural landscapes involves multiple gazes of users, inhabitants, tourists and works as a levee to enlarge any disciplinary gaze, to construct inclusive dialogues between the different parts (expert/non expert; human/non human). It might open to a novel approach to the urban future. The design studio will therefore focus on considering the characteristic features of the Paris landscape(s), and their relationships to the ever-increasing risks and threats facing the metropolis at a time of climate and social crisis. In fact, urban and natural landscape structures, sometimes weak and discreet, must be considered at their true value to be reinterpreted and re-imagined at a time of socio-ecological transition: the multiple services rendered by the latter are crucial to the reflection on the ecological and socio-economic transition project.

WORKSHOP & occasions

An on-site workshop will take place during an extended weekend to document the territory while meeting locals, inhabitants, and experts. Even though it will be the main on-site experience, other occasions to discuss and exchange with experts in the studio's field of research will be organized during the semester. The exhibition at the Pavillon de l'Arsenal in Paris (to be held in May) will offer the occasion to valorize the best students' work.