PRIMARY RESEARCH - INTERVIEW OF LAETITIA LEFAS ABOUT URBAN RENEWAL

UNDERSTANDING THE INTERACTION BETWEEN SPACE, FURNITURE AND USERS.

Laetitia Lefas was head of HR working for Batigère, a social housing corporation based in France. The company is working towards meeting the challenges of housing and providing sustainable, supportive, and inclusive housing. They specialize in council estates and frequently engage in urban renewal work. In France, urban renewal for social purposes is financially supported by l’ANRU, the National Agency for Urban Renewal.

I asked her questions about urban renewal, its challenges and issues involved, and its associated positive and negative effects. During the interview she especially spoke about two projects with very different outcomes, showing some efficient and non-efficient outcomes of urban renewal which really informed me on what would work and what couldn't for my project.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

When does a given area necessitate urban renewal? What are the problems involved?

At Batigère, we were engaging in urban renewal to redevelop and revitalize areas. We were responding to problems of poor housing conditions, as well as feelings of unsafety among residents. We aimed to improve at best the living conditions of the habitants.

One of the projects I saw was the neighborhood of the 4 chemins in Satrouville. It was basically a council estate with two towers with a large concrete slab as a square. Initially constructed in the 60s, the site had deteriorated, raising health and safety issues. At that time, there wasn’t a real sat down about what would work or wouldn’t. It was just about housing a maximum of people in little space hence the height of the towers. They probably thought that the square would be ideal for kids to play and people to meet. Geographically, the area was isolated, difficult to access, and far from local shops. The big problem was the drug trade. The residents didn't feel safe. And the local businesses didn't want to set up there because they were afraid of the area and the people who frequented it.

How do you identify the problems and how do you develop solutions? Are the solutions backed up with social and behavioral research?

When working on urban renewal projects, Batigère works with multiple stakeholders such as their own team of engineers, ANRU (governmental entity), the city, the social housing entities and of course the local residents. Problematics are identified through audits and also listening to the locals. Of course, the team of architects and engineers reflect on those problematics and develop solutions based on research about the area, and its users.

What solutions were implemented for the Sartrouville project?

For the Sartrouville project, it started in 2006 and finished in 2014. The two towers were destroyed to build multiple smaller buildings. This was costly and of course challenging as there was a need of asking the government for more land to build. Facades and halls were refurbished working as well on waterproofing the infrastructures. To respond to the security problems in the area, they created an urban park being opened directly onto the street. Access was made easier. A nursery, a school and other community infrastructures were built.

Did you get feedback on this project? Did you see a change in behaviours after the renewal?

The site before and the site after were incomparable. It felt safe to walk around, people were finally hanging out outside and interacting with each other and drug traffic and insecurity were not an issue anymore. Of course drug traffic probably was relocated elsewhere but at least the inhabitants felt safe now.

What do you think impacted the most the users of that space?

Definitely two things. Opening up the space to the rest of the city was definitely a factor as people felt more involved creating a sense of belonging and simply of community. Secondly creating more social spaces whether the infrastructures or the park with benches and tables and playgrounds at the center of the area. Interaction was happening at the heart the area both geographically and metaphorically speaking.

Do you have an example of a project that didn’t go well?

Yes actually there was this renewal project in 2005 in Clichy-sous-bois that didn’t make any change to the social tensions of the area. The mistake was that they didn’t do much research and thought the project wrong. They rebuilt a modern tower without building social infrastructures around. So in the end there was just this shiny tower and the rest was still unhealthy and unsafe which didn’t made the social tensions go away.

In terms of street furniture, what do you think impacts positively a community?

I think benches are great but in France a lot of them are made to be anti homeless which I get but at the same time it doesn’t fully respond to generating a sense of community as we are marginalising even more some members of that community.

Research

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