A PARTICULAR FOCUS ON DATA QUALITY

More data does not necessarily mean greater understanding. Politopia therefore favours a cross-disciplinary approach

AN APPROACH THAT BRIDGES DISCIPLINES

Architecture · urban planning · landscape architecture · programme planning · social sciences · cartography · data · public engagement

Politopia operates at the intersection of these disciplines to transform diverse bodies of knowledge into a shared foundation for the project.

Bringing together practical experience, collective intelligence and digital tools.

Participation is not limited to public meetings or digital platforms.

Politopia designs initiatives that combine on-the-ground engagement, observation, surveys, mapping, workshops, data and digital tools.

The aim is to increase the number of ways people can contribute, cross-reference sources and make these uses more visible.

Politopia is based on the principle that it is important to shift one’s perspective between professional fields, working methods and modes of representation. A renewed focus on the city involves re-examining what already exists within the urban landscape – urban life in all its ordinariness and ingenuity. We maintain that walking is a relevant means of reflecting on the fabric of the city and of addressing broader questions concerning metropolisation, governance, mobility and urbanity… Examining the city through walking highlights the evolving nature of public spaces and metropolitan landscapes, and provides the keys to multiple interpretations of the urban environment, in its various configurations and temporalities.

AI AS A TOOL FOR ENHANCED CONSULTATION

Technology enhances our ability to listen. It does not replace face-to-face interaction.
Artificial intelligence can help process and link together large volumes of contributions, interviews or data.

At Politopia, it is used to complement fieldwork and human expertise

We challenge traditional consultation and diagnostic methods and toolkits by proposing an inductive approach that starts from the ground up and seeks to foster iterative dialogue between disciplines. How do expectations, lived experiences, everyday practices and extraordinary aspirations intersect with local imaginaries and cultures? We propose flexible frameworks for interpreting and understanding territories (through concrete protocols for representing urban change) that can evolve over the course of the project and be rapidly deployed in discussions between stakeholders. By prioritising the link between peripatetic practices and imaginative modes of inquiry, we foster an iterative perspective that bridges geographical scales and the dynamics of place transformation.

We observe, survey and explore these spaces – from the front steps of a house to the wider landscape of a sprawling urban area – and we strive to understand the city in all its rhythms, its tempos, its interstices and its potential… Against the backdrop of the economic, social and environmental crisis, the debate surrounding walking raises new questions: how can we implement planning strategies that are responsive to living spaces inhabited by a diverse population, whilst safeguarding local identities and cultural heritage? Urban planning is thus once again called upon to restore balance where life creates exclusion.

STRUCTURE

Classify and organise collections of contributions.

HIGHLIGHT

Identify recurring themes, weak signals, points of convergence and divergence.

CROSS-REFERENCE

Link residents’ accounts, spatial data and field observations.

VISUALISE

Transform complex information into maps, matrices and clear visualisations.

COMPARE

Compare different scenarios, areas or user groups. The analysis remains subject to human and context-specific interpretation: digital tools generate leads; Politopia tests these against the context, the field and the people concerned.

Protocoles in action

i walking surveys

Guided tours, go-along interviews, maps of group walks, treasure hunts, transects, group walks..

To explore places in order to get closer to imperceptible realities and uncover the complex nature of territories. To explore in order to reveal atmospheres, tap into emotions, and document the richness of the urban network of routes (paths, alleyways, pavements, crossroads, forecourts, etc.). To champion walking as a means of analysis and a catalyst for projects in both ordinary and extraordinary places. To walk in order to identify perceptible, lived continuities, but also breaks, enclaves, rhythmic densifications or sparsities.

To walk in order to bring life to the territory and speak of the inhabited world through shared interpretations and individual narratives.

Walking to start from the ground (Merleau-Ponty, 1962) and highlight the act of moving as a kinesthetic act, linking the spatial with the temporal, the particular with the universal. Thinking about the city through walking shifts the planner’s gaze from places to multiple routes, to the urban sequencing of experiences. By focusing on the way the body moves within multiple spatial configurations, walking becomes a catalyst for dynamism (M. Corajoud) and urban planning engages with an interpretation of the urban environment in its technical, land-use and political dimensions, but also in its sensory, social, emotional and cultural dimensions…

ii narratives

Logbooks, semi-structured interviews, mind maps, participatory mapping, photographic atlases...

Exploring the city’s multiple narratives helps to reveal new avenues for dialogue on how it is shaped. Taking a close look at the uniqueness of the experience provides access to collective memories, senses of belonging and feelings of familiarity that are not easily identified in detached quantitative surveys. Examining narrative approaches to the urban environment enables us to grasp spatial dynamics, access spontaneous information (which is difficult to capture), and make real-time connections between assessments, judgements, expectations, visions and the physical characteristics of a place.

iii sharing

Consultation workshops, workshops aimed at young audiences, training workshops for professionals, technical reports, the design and publication of consultation booklets, interactive maps, podcasts, mind mapping…

What are the ways of sharing urban experiences? How can we communicate a project’s objectives? How can we put into words the feelings we have about a place? How can we engage in dialogue whilst drafting a set of specifications?

Sharing a walk, memories of a place, and experiences in a neighbourhood also means being able to discuss the aspirations, stances and visions… of all stakeholders. How can we present data drawn from the ‘sensory’ aspects of the ‘lived world’ and cross-reference it with more ‘rational’ data (land registry records, statistics, etc.)? We aim to break down disciplinary boundaries by combining traditional research methods with approaches explored in the arts, psychogeography and other fields.

iv fictions

Films, podcasts, word clouds, writing workshops, photo collages…

‘What if this place…?’ Faced with the increasing complexity of urban planning procedures, the growing number of stakeholders and the fragmentation of responsibilities, a holistic view and a coherent project vision are proving increasingly necessary in many operational contexts (competitions, calls for proposals, international consultations, etc.). The search for and structuring of what makes sense – what unites people around a shared narrative – is a laborious task. Politopia proposes setting out to discover places, stories and territories as ‘Agora Spaces’ that foster encounters, overlaps, confrontations and the blending of multiple visions. Fiction is used here as a pretext, as a catalyst for debate. Identifying existing works of fiction or creating new ones is a way of informing the processes of analysis and the strategies for shaping a place, drawing on insights derived from the unique interaction that residents have with a territory. The aim is to conceive of the city not only through setting things in motion but also through storytelling. How can we access the meanings that each individual ascribes to a place, and the imaginaries and images produced concerning a space used in everyday life? Which places hold value for each individual within the city, and what value would this data hold in defining the urban project?