Addressing sustainability at a tangible scale
Vieux-Port, Marseille © EPFL / LAST
Dr. Martine Laprise, senior scientist at the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST), was invited to write a column simultaneously broadcast in several Swiss newspapers like Le Nouvelliste, Arcinfo and La Côte on the transition of urban territories towards sustainability. The article highlights, more specifically, the neighborhood scale as a basis for tangible actions in the project process.
The implementation of sustainability objectives sometimes proves complex to anchor into practice. In this context, the neighborhood, which is easier to understand because of its size, may prove to be the most appropriate scale for addressing environmental, economic, and socio-cultural dimensions. Between city and building, the neighborhood offers a sufficiently broad framework of urban reality to imply sustainability criteria that go beyond the building alone, but also sufficiently circumscribed to consider and implement concrete interventions, including open spaces and infrastructures.
There is no simple answer to meeting the precepts of urban sustainability. However, projects designed at the neighborhood scale are a privileged means of action to contribute to the transition of urban territories by promoting the emergence of dynamic cities, offering a welcoming and inclusive living environment while improving energy consumption and resilience to climate change.
As a portion of the city, the project at the neighborhood scale allows for experimentation of sustainability measures that are both innovative and appropriate. With these considerations in mind, the neighborhood scale is an important focus of research at the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST).