This book is structured into three main sections, hosting a variety of themes which illustrate the issues raised by the three general axes previously mentioned.
The first section presents the educational processes at the service of ecological transition, by paying particular attention to good practices in terms of the teaching and research of the ecological challenges to be taken up by architects, town planners and landscapers. It is mainly based on teaching experiences across the ENSA (École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture) institutions in France.
The first chapter begins with the conference of one of the pioneers of what is called bioclimatism. André De Herde delivered the general introduction to the three days of EnsaÉco meetings. The author structures his remarks into three main blocks. The first one presents the “bioclimatic”, “sustainable” and “smart” concepts proposed by architecture schools to remedy the energy crisis of the 1970s. The second one recalls the reasons for the creation of the “Architecture and Climate” research team in 1980. He concludes his contribution with a state-of-the-art of the teachings of architectural engineers at the University of Louvain-La-Neuve.
De Herde’s conference is followed by the testimonies of three teacher-researchers, Anne Coste, Frédéric Dellinger and Théodore Guuinic, who illustrate the engagement of the field of history as an independent discipline and as a privileged dimension of other educational fields for acknowledging the constraints related to climate change. The authors of this work discuss the way in which climate change considerations have shaped the teaching of the history of architecture, town planning and landscape. They also show how the historical dimension makes it possible to put the climatic questions addressed by other disciplines taught at the ENSA(P) into perspective.
This chapter is followed by the contributions of Alain Guez and Antoine Steck from ENSA Nancy, who use intensive teaching to make students aware about the challenges of ecological transition in the Anthropocene era, and invite them to apprehend possible levers of action by working from concrete situations at different territorial and temporal scales.
Also in the context of the feedback from educational processes at the service of ecological transition, the contributions by Emmanuel Doutriaux and Edith Akiki are based on an experience at the interface between teaching and research. The authors work on the environmental question by bringing together their respective expertise, with a special focus on climate change.
The first section of the book closes with the work of Christophe Laurens, Valentin Sanitas, Clément Gaillard, Tibo Labat and Jérémie Buttin, who aim to present the experience of a group of students carried out at the ZAD NDDL (Zone to Defend, Notre-Dame-des-Landes), a territory which articulates many concrete dimensions. The authors suggest a few avenues in order to understand how to represent the contemporary political and ecological issues specific to this struggling territory, by means of representation and architectural design.
The second section of the book discusses ecological transition challenges that research needs to address.
Based on a case study located in a tropical climate (Reunion Island), as part of her final thesis edited by Hassan Ait Haddou, Magalie Técher explores the notion of comfort at elementary schools in humid tropical climates. The authors address questions which are at the core of architectural thought, in a context of ecological and economic crises, with the aim of providing a healthy and sustainable environment for children. They seek to provide food for thought and avenues for improvement in the design of school buildings. The analysis of data resulting from a campaign of indoor atmosphere measurements and a perception survey made it possible to determine optimal comfort zones for students at the different climatic zones of Reunion Island.
The study conducted by Séverine Steenhuyse in Marseille, focuses on the phenomenon of the urban heat island (UHI). The author of this project calls into question the virtuous planning of this city, with the aim of preserving its qualities and contributing to the mitigation of this phenomenon (UHI). The purpose of her work is to find out to what extent urban vegetation can actually be used, first analyzing how the phenomenon of urban overheating works, and discussing its known mitigating factors. Later, the author explores the issues of the urban green and blue network in order to imagine how these two issues could combine their approaches.
In Toulouse, Isabelle Fortuné carried out a study on summer comfort in the face of climate change. The author invites us to take into account the overall cost and the sensations within our habitat if we wish to be in line with the challenges of ecological transition.
A collaborative and multidisciplinary perspective concludes this second section with the contribution of Cécile Fries Paiola, who presents the work of a team of teacher-researchers from ENSA Nancy. Their approach combines lessons from project workshops, scientific mediation actions, and ultimately, joint research projects, in order to find answers to the new constraints of digital, ecological and societal transitions.
The third and last section demonstrates how professionals face the new challenges brought about by major changes. This is precisely what Damien Antoni describes in his chapter. The author proposes to respond to two distinct themes, namely the ways of mitigating global warming and giving testimony of the ecological architectural projects in progress.
With the purpose of dealing with global warming, François Nowakowski describes an educational experience carried out in partnership with the community of municipalities in the Ardèche valley, at Vallée de la Ligne. Based on the theoretical framework of the Italian territorialist school, this work has made it possible to identify the dynamics of change at work in the territory, either in the direction of adaptation/mitigation of climate change, or on the contrary, its amplification.
Back in Toulouse, the work of Clément Gaillard focuses on the bioclimatic houses of Jean-Pierre Cordier, who is considered as an important and influential figure of this design process. The chapter aims to understand not only the motivations, the architectural and constructive choices, but also the errors which appear in various projects by Jean-Pierre Cordier built between 1981 and 1986.
The last contribution of this section echoes the !MPACT competition, a contest open to all students of architecture and other training schools related to building, engineering, design and art, both in France and at an international scale.
Through these varied contributions, we can notice the diversity of approaches dealing with the issue of climate change in architecture and landscape schools. This testifies to the interdisciplinarity within schools, thanks to the teachers, researchers, students and administrative staff who work at them. By combining these varied texts, we hope to have contributed to the challenge of integrating ecological transition into the teaching and research departments of architecture and landscape schools.
1 1 For more information, see: http://ensaeco.archi.fr/manifestations/actes-lyon-2017/.
2 2 For more information, see: http://ensaeco.archi.fr/appel-de-lyon/.
3 3 For more information, see: http://ensaeco.archi.fr/manifestations/2018-nancy-_mesures-basculantes/.
4 4 For more information on the “IgnisMutatRes” program, see: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Thematiques/Architecture/Formations-Recherche-Metiers/La-recherche-architecturale-urbaine-et-paysagere/L-organisation-de-la-recherche/La-politique-incitative-a-la-recherche/Ignis-Mutat-Res-IMR