Paris is under experiment. The question of urban cooling in the light of the climatic challenges of today and tomorrow is on everyone's mind. And particularly in those of the accelerator of innovative urban projects FAIRE, which is launching three innovative experiments in the capital. Presentations.
Dince 2017, FAIRE, an accelerator of innovative urban projects, launched by the Pavillon de l'Arsenal and the City of Paris with the support of Caisse des Dépôts and MINI, has been supporting and implementing several experiments on the issue of urban cooling with regard to the climate challenges of today and tomorrow. Buoyed by the success of the first two sessions, last April the two institutions launched the third call for innovative projects FAIRE 2019. With more than 25 projects already accelerated since 2017, 6 studies published, 18 prototypes tested or in the process of being tested, a collaborative development platform and a new type of real estate development for which the first building permits will be issued in 2019 and more than a hundred partners involved, FAIRE is becoming a real collective laboratory of innovative practices.
FAIRE 2019 invited multidisciplinary teams - architects, urban planners, landscape designers, engineers, designers, but also students from architecture and design schools - to propose innovative research and experimentation in the face of major urban challenges: climate, materials crisis, new technologies, resilience, solidarity, mobility, energy... Here are three of the projects selected, implemented or in progress.
AÉRO-SEINE by Isabelle DAËRON, Designer/ OGI, Design Office / CSTB
Installation of the first climatic puddle at rue Blanchard, Paris 20, from mid-July 2019. It is a question of thinking today of new ways to refresh the public space. The City of Paris has a specific feature that could be an answer: the non-drinking water network. The latter, designed in the middle of the 19th century for watering green spaces and cleaning roads, draws its water from the Canal de l'Ourcq and the Seine.
Designed by Isabelle Daëron, Aéro-Seine is a cooling mouth which, connected to the non-potable water network, allows, in periods of high heat, to contribute to cooling the ambient air thanks to an overflow device favouring the contact between water and air.
For the designer, "Dense and highly mineral-rich cities will be increasingly confronted with the phenomenon of heat islands. In Paris, average daily temperatures are already regularly 2°C to 3°C higher than in the rest of the Ile-de-France region. In summer, this can reach 10°C higher than in neighbouring rural areas. With an increase in average daily temperatures of 2°C to 4°C expected by the end of the 21st century, with an increasing number of heat waves, Paris is urgently in need of adapting to the climate. We need to think about new ways of cooling the public space today.
The City of Paris has a specific feature that could be an answer: the non-drinking water network. The infrastructure made up of the network and screening plants makes it possible to produce water that is cheaper and less energy consuming than drinking water. Therefore, how to refresh the public space with non-potable water while respecting sanitary standards?
To answer this, we have devised a principle of a refreshment mouth. Like the sprinklers or washing machines in the street, the cooling unit would be connected to the non-potable water network and could be opened with a key by a city official in hot weather. The device works by overflow. Once opened, the water rises and spreads over a surface made of a porous material (quartz). This increases the contact surface between the water and the air, thus helping to cool the ambient air.
In a study on the future of the non-potable water network in Paris, the APUR estimates that "the combination of the phenomenon of sprinkling and a specific pavement leads to spectacular results (...) It is a question of watering sunny surfaces, in the morning before 10 am and in the afternoon after 4 pm, at a rate of 1L per m2 every 30 minutes (i.e. 2L/m2/h). This process results in a drop in air temperature of about 2°C in the morning and 4°C in the afternoon". In addition, pavement watering tests carried out in Paris in July 2017 by researchers from LIED and Diderot University revealed temperature differences of almost 15°C at the surface of the ground, with a drop in the perceived temperature of up to -1.5°C.
A first prototype of a cooling unit has been produced but this project now needs to be tested in the urban environment to evaluate the cooling performance in real conditions. Within the framework of the call for projects FAIRE DESIGN URBAIN, our project consists in designing a cooling unit adapted to a site in Paris. It could be for example to integrate such a device in mineral areas under reconversion such as the Porte de Vincennes, the Porte de Versailles or the Porte de France.
The challenge is to define an experimental site (congestion, adaptation to the existing water network, creation of a site-specific design, etc.) and to test its performance in terms of refreshing the public space (surveys, studies) as well as its integration into the urban landscape and the uses of the public space. » (Source)
Team : Isabelle DaëronPauline Avrillon, OGI Design Office (Amal Jolles, Philippe Carton). With the participation of the services of the City of Paris (DPE, DVD, DEVE, Eau de Paris) and the Town Hall of the 20th arrondissement.
With the support of DPE - Direction de la Propreté et de l'Eau, DEVE - Direction des Espaces Verts et de l'Environnement, DVD - Direction de la Voirie et des Déplacements, Eau de Paris and the Mairie du 20e.
QUARRY AIR d'ALT, ARCHITECTS // Emma LELONG AND Rémi NGUYEN, Designers
Installation in 2020 Paris has a large network of quarries in its subsoil, whose air has a constant average temperature of 14 degrees, despite the variations in temperature at the surface. Reinterpreting the principle of the Canadian well, the climatic bench, made of raw earth, exploits the fresh air available in the Parisian quarries to refresh the Parisian public space from time to time during the summer period.
The architects and designers of the project explain: "When the temperature rises, the Parisian urban environment is responsible for overheating that is difficult to bear. To fight against this phenomenon, called Urban Heat Islands (UHI), the city of Paris is developing tools that will allow in the future a better resilience of the urban environment in the face of these climatic challenges.
Reinterpreting the principle of the Canadian well to bring to the surface the fresh air available in the Parisian quarries, our proposal takes advantage of a free, untapped and naturally renewable resource to improve the reception conditions of the public space. Our multidisciplinary team of designers, architects and urban planners has addressed this urgent issue and proposes a simple and effective solution to bring freshness in the summer season.
Paris has a large network of quarries in its subsoil, whose air has a constant average temperature of 14 degrees, despite the variations in temperature at the surface. This observation led us to imagine a solution to occasionally cool the public space by means of a new type of street furniture, accentuating the reception function during hot spells and allowing the emergence of new spontaneous uses.
The installation consists of three modules of varying heights and depths to accommodate different postures. They are obtained by compressing raw earth in moulds and assembled with mortar. These modules are designed with spacers which, once assembled, create regular interstices that allow quarry air to pass between the modules. For easy connection to the quarries, the installation is positioned at the exit of existing service shafts, allowing it to benefit from a fresh air intake extracted by means of a simple electric motor pump located underground.
In addition to being a local material, raw clay is known for its thermal effusiveness, allowing it to store heat while maintaining a cool surface to the touch. Taking into account the need for the City of Paris to rationalize the congestion of its public space, our street furniture project is easily assembled and dismantled so as not to clutter up the public space outside periods of use.
Once the mould is created, the modules are produced in large numbers and at low cost, allowing installation, dismantling and recycling between periods of use. Inspired by the furniture already present in the urban space such as the bench, column and table, these new urban ventilations are based on the heritage and symbolic dimension of the quarries, to bring a singular image and a not insignificant showcase effect to the project. In addition, its environmental positioning can arouse the interest of users and partners. In phase with the reflections of the city of Paris on its urban furniture and responding to issues of sustainable development, our proposal initiates a reflection on short-term developments, allowing to improve the use of urban spaces during periods of high summer heat while waiting for the concretization of urban reflections on a larger scale. » (Source)
Project by Frédéric Blaise, Guillaume Duranel and Julia Lenoir, architects; Emma Lelong and Rémi Nguyen, designers
In partnership with the Inspection Générale des Carrières and CLIMESPACE
RAIN TREE by Clément and Antoine BERTIN, Architect and sound craftsman
Prototype tested in Square Schwartzenberg, Paris Xe in July 2018 The rain tree, a real urban cooling device to fight against heat islands, is a technical sound and water play installation that is grafted onto existing trees to invent an "augmented tree" that makes rain fall when it detects a scream. The fine raindrops disperse through the leaves and create reflections for the eyes and ears. The resulting drizzle lowers the temperature in urban and mineral environments.
A first experiment in Paris Xe in 2018
With daily Parisian temperatures in excess of 30°C, the Pavillon de l'Arsenal experimented for a few days in the 10th arrondissement, the rain treeDistrict cooling device for combating heat islands.
Conceived by Clément and Antoine Bertin, architect and sound artist, and realized in collaboration with Artists & Engineers, the rain tree is a technical sound and water play installation that, thanks to its fine drops of rain, disperses through the leaves and the passage and creates reflections for the eyes and ears. The mist thus produced makes it possible to lower the temperature in urban and mineral environments, as was done in 2018 in the Square Schwartzenberg.
Clément Bertin is an architect. In 2013, he founded the radio architecture collective CARACALLA. As for Antoine Bertin, an artist, he listens. He listens to the rubbings, frictions, hiatuses and dissonances that emanate from the tensions between documentary and fiction, poetry and politics, living and virtual. What he hears, he makes us listen in turn through audio and radio narrations, sound walks, sculptures and various publications. Intertwining technology with the art of storytelling, he seeks to bring into play our relationship to our environment, to what can never be achieved and to the concept of progress.
Throughout the ages and around the world, summer rain dances around trees have always wanted to influence the climate, avoid droughts and promote harvests. Returning to the city today at a time when climate change seems to be dividing us, the contemporary interpretation of these ceremonies could, thanks to the establishment of these rain trees, offer both the opportunity to gather and to cool down.
Produced as part of the FAIRE programme launched by the Pavillon de l'Arsenal with the support of the City of Paris, Caisse des Dépôts and in partnership with the Ordre régional des architectes d'Île-de-France, the rain tree is a unique demonstrator and experiment carried out thanks to the support of the 10th arrondissement town hall, Sound anything, Artists & ingeniors and Immaters.
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