Urban Labs
Territorial foresight and resilience: crafting the future together
Cities and territories, like the world as a whole, are undergoing the two major movements of both digital and environmental transitions, that the Covid crisis drastically accelerated. This unprecedented societal, technological and territorial metamorphosis is shaping a new world, that of the Anthropocene, not without a certain complexity and many unknowns.
From our point of view, foresight must first serve to meet these future challenges, to avoid being overwhelmed or frozen by uncertainty, and to seek a prospective reconstruction or even a positive rebirth. The implementation of a prospective and collaborative research, which we call a future lab, allows us to explore, learn and find solutions together for the future.
Our simple workshop formulas allow us to lay the foundations of a lab in a very fluid and inclusive way.
Our foresight contents and tailor-made future labs are meant to help understand the impact chains of current evolutions (prospective analysis and pedagogy), and then imagine possible scenarios, strategies, projects or solutions (prospective design).
By favoring tailor-made and eventually “incubated” on the territory research methods, our high impact future labs support the commitment of stakeholders in all their diversity of profiles, purposes and strategic issues.
The current paradigm shift includes in particular a transformation and hybridization of all societal uses (work, production, education, commerce, leisure, culture, well-being, etc.), a pivotal role and evolution of infrastructures (energy, water , mobility, logistics, data, green deal, regional ecosystem, etc.), and a redefinition of citizenship and collective life codes, whether in terms of governance, citizen aspirations (belonging, imagination, inclusion, engagement, etc.) and value systems.
Our prospective approach to territories thus favors a multidimensional and ecosystem vision to understand all these cogs without dissociating them, and also drawing on the singularity and intangible capital of the territory, resources and keys to optimize their proper orchestration to the future.
Our urban labs benefit from nearly twenty years of urban and academic collaborations on the topic of territories, whether from the angle of sustainable urban design, economic and cultural program, technological innovation, knowledge, social uses or civic life, and living together.
Our Services Offers
CONTENT
Conference and future insights
Trend study
Transitions impacts
Inspirational scenario
THEMATIC WORKSHOP
Thematic research group “ Future of… ”
Workshops to mobilize stakeholders
Open-lab with guest expert(s)
Workshop to design tailor-made future lab
FUTURE LAB
Prospective levers audit
Tailor-made prospective analysis matrix
Scenario co-designing
Design fiction / Simulation research
PROJECT DESIGN
Innovative urban project
Third-place experimentation
Academic project
Cultural project
See our PUBLICATIONS and CONFERENCES related to the cities and territories
LABs CITIES & TERRITORIES
LABs GREATER PARIS METROPOLIS
IHEST (Institut des Hautes Etudes en Sciences et Technologies)
IHEST (Institute for Higher Studies in Sciences & Technologies), Ministry of Research and Higher Education
Series of thematic workshops and research groups, including the casting and invitation of guest academic and professional experts.
Themes (incl. an urban and territorial approach): future of factories and fabrication, future of nuclear energy, future of economy and sustainability, future fashion and creative industries soft-power.
AFHYPAC / France Hydrogene
Strategic foresight co-design workshop for the French Hydrogen Industry
Design and moderation of a collective intelligence process to explore possible futures for hydrogen, its industry in France and the association that represents it. Reflection on influence levers.
Citynove / Galeries Lafayette Group
Cultural, Collaborative and Urban Innovation Lab
Insights on urban innovation and resilience. Collaborative research to amplify the cultural and urban innovation of the group (via its real-estate branch and the Lafayette Anticipation Foundation). Topics: historical renovation, art’s contribution, experience and space design, retail, place-making, sustainability, etc.
Bouygues Construction
Future of Campuses International Study
Co-design, edition and writing with Peclers of an in-depth study of the future of campuses (weak signals methodology). Topics: new approaches to and spaces for pedagogy, universities’ national and international positioning, innovation ecosystems, inclusion in territorial dynamics, Y and Z generations’ well-being, etc.
Aalto University, Helsinki
Societal and urban innovation international platform
Insights on the role of art and artists in societal and urban innovation. Co-design of an international and trans-disciplinary societal innovation camp (8 day task force – 150 participants – 40 nationalities). Design of an exhibition kit to stage, share and discuss groups’ work. Topics: life-long learning, urban inclusion and transition, aging society and silver potential, knowledge economy paradigm, etc.
Science-Po School x DATAR
Creative Territories Research Program
Contribution to the research program on “Creative Territories” developed by Science-Po Urban School, for the DATAR State planning agency. Insights on the contribution of art and art-based research to territorial innovation. Publication of an article on metropolitiques.eu.
Christiania, City of Copenhagen
Scenarios for the Self-organized Community
Aesthetic audit of the self-organized neighborhood of Copenhagen to identify the levers and potential of its creative reinvention (published in 2006 in Knowledge Cities). Photographic research. Design of a future strategy in a governmental competition (3rd prize). Exhibition at Over Gaden Art Center. Publication of a critical future scenario (horizon 2030), France Fiction review.
Museum of Art and History, Geneva
Incubation of a collaborative lab on the future of museums (incl. urban implications)
Implementation of a collective reflexion on the future of museums with the staff (80 collaborators) to help the museum design it future strategy.
Series of foresight pedagogy masterclasses and workshops to explore the impact of the environmental transition (territorial connections and resilience, short circuits, zero waste, new programs, hybrid spaces, etc.), digital transition (experience, collection, renovation, work, organization fabrication, online existence, NFT, blockchains, metaverse, etc.) and demographic transition (multigenerational perspective, migrations, new audiences, neo-nomadism, new tourism, etc.)
Bouygues Real Estate
Future of Resilient Cities International Studies
Series of future trends reports on the future of cities (ecology, mobility, well-being, technology, citizen life, creative and economic fertility, inclusion, branding and attractiveness, collective past and future imaginaries, etc.), of territorial and urban resilience (new sustainable development school declined in 4 dimensions: ecological, inclusive, collaborative and cultural), and of social, societal and urban innovations. Curation, casting and moderation of a round-table on the mobilization and power of new social and urban innovation networks.
Atelier LUMA Arles
Art City, Urban Resilience and Hospitality
Pedagogy about territorial resilience strategies and new innovation cultures. Workshops to co-design inspirational future scenarios for the city of Arles and the Camargues bioregion. Critical analysis and keynote during the Luma Days. Prospective topics: Future of cultural institutions, collaborative economy and resilient innovation, inclusion and social innovation, new rurality, sustainable tourism, hospitality, culture and agriculture synergies, campus-city, 21st century factory-city, Unesco 3.0 city, neo-nomadism and the Global Village.
Wildbunch Film Distribution
Future of movie theaters and design of innovative urban projects
Future lab to rethink film promotion and distribution circuits in movie theaters. Insights on urban innovation challenges, centrality issues, the role of cultural places (and movie theaters), and on possible synergies with social innovation, cultural and knowledge networks. Design of innovative digital platforms with Les Arcs Film Festival (digital innovation lab).
Architecture Faculty and City of Montevideo, Uruguay
Strategy to Create an Art District
Future insight on the Creative City, urban and social innovation, and digital transition. Mobilization of a local creative community to set-up an Art District. Project design workshops to activate it. Staged open-lab with a pool of potential partners. Project international partner: www.arte-sur.org
Mesopolis Lab / R&D
Design of an Artistic, Urban and Ecosophical Utopia
Design of an ecosophical (Guattari) and resilient territorial utopia, inspired by a trip in Iran and evolving into something more fictional. Photography, diagrams, installation and workshops at Atelier Martel Architecture, Paris, 2013. Fiction Design conference, Art & Sciences chair, Polytechnique, ENSAD, 2019. Publication in Review Bad To the Bone #16, 2021 and conference at ENSA St Etienne, 2021.
Tong Ji University x Shanghai World Expo 2010
Design research for a World Expo urban strategy
Co-design with Dr Zhang Kai of an urban program and planning scheme for Shanghai World Expo “Better City – Better Life”, including the creation of an urban lab (Urban Best Practice Area). Design of a strategic map. Photographic research, exhibition (France Fiction gallery) and publication (La Tribune).
Lab Paris Galaxies (semi-academic), LIID R&D since 2008
Twice laureate of Paris 2030 research grant (City of Paris academic program). Numerous experiments.
Research about the future of the Greater Paris area in partnership with ACTE (Art, Creation, Theory, Aesthetics) Institute, Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne University, and the Paris 2030 research fund (City of Paris). Design of an analytical matrix and scenario projection methods at various horizons. Collaborative research workshops with partnering schools. Audit of the metropolis creative constellation and its levers for urban innovation. Academic, prospective and artistic conferences and publications, including the fiction design book “Paris Ars Universalis”. Site : parisgalaxies.net
Lab and book "Paris Ars Universalis"
new series of articles, conferences and workshops
New critics of Paris Ars Universalis (Collection Avant-Garde, L’Harmattan) on francetvinfo.fr, 2019, metropolitiques.eu, 2020, Grand Paris Développement Magazine, 2020, and Review Futur Hebdo, 2020. Conference and workshop, Prospective Lab Session, Futuribles, 2019, opening keynote conference of International syposium “Urban Contradiction”, Laboratoire LAVUE, ENSA Paris La Villette, 2020.
Paris Galaxies Action Shooting Lab x Casa 93
Photographic and Urban Experimentation
Insights on the Greater Paris metropolis, the role of creative communities, the transformation of urban imaginaries and the ecology of attention. Series of performative photography workshops in the public space highlighting the building mechanisms of individual, collective and urban identities.
ATHEM (urban event and communication)
Creative City and Future Strategy
Insights about the Creative City model and the potential for innovation. Series of workshops to reposition the company as a responsible and engaged urban stakeholder. Co-design of a strategy to create an iconic space hosting a hybrid artistic project and ecosystem for the program Reinventing the River.
AIGP, Paris La Villette Architecture School and HESAM
Design of futurescapes and futures scenarios for the Greater Paris in 150 years
Co-design of futurescapes and future scenarios (horizon 2165) with 25 Master and PhD students. Design of a collaborative installation and staging of the group’s work (One week camp). Design of an image-based research methodology. Series of open-lab sessions with future experts and scientific journalists. See: grandparisfuturlab.org
6B, St Denis x Paris College of Art
Collaborative and Economic Models Design research
Series of workshops with the students in Design Management at Paris College of Art. Research of a socio-cultural innovative program, sustainable economic model and future strategy for the 6B, the self-organized art residency created by Julien Beller in St Denis. See: www.parisgalaxies.net
Boulle Design School x Grand Paris South / Orly Territory
Urban and Landscape design research
Coaching and jury to evaluate and discuss both diploma thesis and projects produced by students in the Lived Spaces section, in relation to specific rurban sites located in the southern part of the Greater Paris Metropolis.
SOFERIM (Real Estate)
Urban Project Design in an Era of Transitions
Future trends masterclasses at Palais de Tokyo in Paris (topics: Anthropocene and territorial resilience, digital transition, A.I. era, urban innovation, Creative City, role of art, patronage, etc.). Workshops to co-design an innovative urban project for the Lisch Station in Asnière and preparation of an application in the Reinventing the Metropolis II program.
Grand Paris Amenagement
Creative and Collaborative Innovation Lab
Insights on societal and urban trends (creative and collaborative spaces, innovation ecosystems, creative city, role of art). Series of workshops to program and co-design the common areas in the new head-quarter, in synergy with the group’s artistic, social and associative engagements.
Rouen Art-Based Urban Lab x Neoma Business School
Lab to design of Art projects and hybrid urban hubs
Series of workshops with Art Management (Master of Science) international students to co-design art projects (curatorial program, economic and urban strategy) for sites in the Greater Paris metropolis (train station, campus, historical industrial warehouse, etc.). Series of open-lab with Greater Paris stakeholders
Campus Fonderie de l'Image, Bagnolet
Collaborative Map and Platform Design research
Series of UX and UI design research workshops (with designer Sylvia Fredriksson’s students) to create a collaborative online map and platform, to federate and empower the 300 places of the Greater Paris artistic constellation while supporting the metropolization process. Site : parisgalaxies.net
Paris College of Art
Creative Leadership and Urban Design Programs
Design and direction of the Creative Leadership program. Series of workshops about the future of the Greater Paris including ethno-sociological and photographic field exploration. Research on the model of artistic places and collaborative platform models (including the economic view). See: www.parisgalaxies.net
LABs CITIES & TERRITORIES
IHEST (Institut des Hautes Etudes en Sciences et Technologies)
Series of workshops on Transitions
Series of thematic workshops and research groups, including the casting and invitation of guest academic and professional experts.
Themes (incl. an urban and territorial approach): future of factories and fabrication, future of nuclear energy, future of economy and sustainability, future fashion and creative industries soft-power.
Bouygues Real Estate
Future of Resilient Cities International Studies
Series of future trends reports on the future of cities (ecology, mobility, well-being, technology, citizen life, creative and economic fertility, inclusion, branding and attractiveness, collective past and future imaginaries, etc.), of territorial and urban resilience (new sustainable development school declined in 4 dimensions: ecological, inclusive, collaborative and cultural), and of social, societal and urban innovations. Curation, casting and moderation of a round-table on the mobilization and power of new social and urban innovation networks.
AFHYPAC / France Hydrogene
Strategic foresight co-design workshop for the French Hydrogen Industry
Design and moderation of a collective intelligence process to explore possible futures for hydrogen, its industry in France and the association that represents it. Reflection on influence levers.
Atelier LUMA Arles
Art City, Urban Resilience and Hospitality
Pedagogy about territorial resilience strategies and new innovation cultures. Workshops to co-design inspirational future scenarios for the city of Arles and the Camargues bio-region. Critical analysis and keynote during the Luma Days. Prospective topics: Future of cultural institutions, collaborative economy and resilient innovation, inclusion and social innovation, new rurality, sustainable tourism, hospitality, culture and agriculture synergies, campus-city, 21st century factory-city, Unesco 3.0 city, neo-nomadism and the Global Village.
Citynove / Galeries Lafayette Group
Cultural, Collaborative and Urban Innovation Lab
Insights on urban innovation and resilience. Collaborative research to amplify the cultural and urban innovation of the group (via its real-estate branch and the Lafayette Anticipation Foundation). Topics: historical renovation, art’s contribution, experience and space design, retail, place-making, sustainability, etc.
Wildbunch Film Distribution
Future of movie theaters and design of innovative urban projects
Future lab to rethink film promotion and distribution circuits in movie theaters. Insights on urban innovation challenges, centrality issues, the role of cultural places (and movie theaters), and on possible synergies with social innovation, cultural and knowledge networks. Design of innovative digital platforms with Les Arcs Film Festival (digital innovation lab).
Bouygues Construction
Future of Campuses International Study
Co-design, edition and writing with Peclers of an in-depth study of the future of campuses (weak signals methodology). Topics: new approaches to and spaces for pedagogy, universities’ national and international positioning, innovation ecosystems, inclusion in territorial dynamics, Y and Z generations’ well-being, etc.
Architecture Faculty and City of Montevideo, Uruguay
Strategy to Create an Art District
Future insight on the Creative City, urban and social innovation, and digital transition. Mobilization of a local creative community to set-up an Art District. Project design workshops to activate it. Staged open-lab with a pool of potential partners. Project international partner: www.arte-sur.org
Aalto University, Helsinki
Societal and urban innovation international platform
Insights on the role of art and artists in societal and urban innovation. Co-design of an international and trans-disciplinary societal innovation camp (8 day task force – 150 participants – 40 nationalities). Design of an exhibition kit to stage, share and discuss groups’ work. Topics: life-long learning, urban inclusion and transition, aging society and silver potential, knowledge economy paradigm, etc.
Mesopolis Lab / R&D
Design of an Artistic, Urban and Ecosophical Utopia
Design of an ecosophical (Guattari) and resilient territorial utopia, inspired by a trip in Iran and evolving into something more fictional. Photography, diagrams, installation and workshops at Atelier Martel Architecture, Paris, 2013. Fiction Design conference, Art & Sciences chair, Polytechnique, ENSAD, 2019. Publication in Review Bad To the Bone #16, 2021 and conference at ENSA St Etienne, 2021.
Science-Po School x DATAR
Creative Territories Research Program
Contribution to the research program on “Creative Territories” developed by Science-Po Urban School, for the DATAR State planning agency. Insights on the contribution of art and art-based research to territorial innovation. Publication of an article on metropolitiques.eu.
Tong Ji University x Shanghai World Expo 2010
Design research for a World Expo urban strategy
Co-design with Dr Zhang Kai of an urban program and planning scheme for Shanghai World Expo “Better City – Better Life”, including the creation of an urban lab (Urban Best Practice Area). Design of a strategic map. Photographic research, exhibition (France Fiction gallery) and publication (La Tribune).
Christiania, City of Copenhagen
Scenarios for the Self-organized Community
Aesthetic audit of the self-organized neighborhood of Copenhagen to identify the levers and potential of its creative reinvention (published in 2006 in Knowledge Cities). Photographic research. Design of a future strategy in a governmental competition (3rd prize). Exhibition at Over Gaden Art Center. Publication of a critical future scenario (horizon 2030), France Fiction review.
LAB GREATER PARIS METROPOLIS
Lab Paris Galaxies (semi-academic), LIID R&D since 2008
Twice laureate of Paris 2030 research grant (City of Paris academic program). Numerous experiments.
Research about the future of the Greater Paris area in partnership with ACTE (Art, Creation, Theory, Aesthetics) Institute, Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne University, and the Paris 2030 research fund (City of Paris). Design of an analytical matrix and scenario projection methods at various horizons. Collaborative research workshops with partnering schools. Audit of the metropolis creative constellation and its levers for urban innovation. Academic, prospective and artistic conferences and publications, including the fiction design book “Paris Ars Universalis”. Site : parisgalaxies.net
Boulle Design School x Grand Paris South / Orly Territory
Urban and Landscape design research
Coaching and jury to evaluate and discuss both diploma thesis and projects produced by students in the Lived Spaces section, in relation to specific rurban sites located in the southern part of the Greater Paris Metropolis.
Lab and book "Paris Ars Universalis"
New series of articles, conferences and workshops
New critics of Paris Ars Universalis (Collection Avant-Garde, L’Harmattan) on francetvinfo.fr, 2019, metropolitiques.eu, 2020, Grand Paris Développement Magazine, 2020, and Review Futur Hebdo, 2020. Conference and workshop, Prospective Lab Session, Futuribles, 2019, opening keynote conference of International syposium “Urban Contradiction”, Laboratoire LAVUE, ENSA Paris La Villette, 2020.
Soferim Real Estate
Urban Project Design in an Era of Transitions
Future trends masterclasses at Palais de Tokyo in Paris (topics: Anthropocene and territorial resilience, digital transition, A.I. era, urban innovation, Creative City, role of art, patronage, etc.). Workshops to co-design an innovative urban project for the Lisch Station in Asnière and preparation of an application in the Reinventing the Metropolis II program.
Paris Galaxies Action Shooting Lab x Casa 93
Photographic and Urban Experimentation
Insights on the Greater Paris metropolis, the role of creative communities, the transformation of urban imaginaries and the ecology of attention. Series of performative photography workshops in the public space highlighting the building mechanisms of individual, collective and urban identities.
Grand Paris Amenagement
Creative and Collaborative Innovation Lab
Insights on societal and urban trends (creative and collaborative spaces, innovation ecosystems, creative city, role of art). Series of workshops to program and co-design the common areas in the new head-quarter, in synergy with the group’s artistic, social and associative engagements.
Athem-Skerzo (urban events and communication)
Creative City and Future Strategy
Insights about the Creative City model and the potential for innovation. Series of workshops to reposition the company as a responsible and engaged urban stakeholder. Co-design of a strategy to create an iconic space hosting a hybrid artistic project and ecosystem for the program Reinventing the River.
Rouen Art-Based Urban Lab x Neoma Business School
Lab to design of Art projects and hybrid urban hubs
Series of workshops with Art Management (Master of Science) international students to co-design art projects (curatorial program, economic and urban strategy) for sites in the Greater Paris metropolis (train station, campus, historical industrial warehouse, etc.). Series of open-lab with Greater Paris stakeholders
AIGP, Paris La Villette Architecture School and HESAM
Design of futurescapes and futures scenarios for the Greater Paris in 150 years
Co-design of futurescapes and future scenarios (horizon 2165) with 25 multidisciplinary Master and PhD students. Design of a collaborative installation and staging of the group’s work (One week camp). Design of an image-based research methodology. Series of open-lab sessions with future experts and scientific journalists. See: grandparisfuturlab.org
Campus Fonderie de l'Image, Bagnolet
Collaborative Map and Platform Design research
Series of UX and UI design research workshops (with designer Sylvia Fredriksson’s students) to create a collaborative online map and platform, to federate and empower the 300 places of the Greater Paris artistic constellation while supporting the metropolization process. Site : parisgalaxies.net
6B, St Denis x Paris College of Art
Collaborative and Economic Models Design research
Series of workshops with the students in Design Management at Paris College of Art. Research of a socio-cultural innovative program, sustainable economic model and future strategy for the 6B, the self-organized art residency created by Julien Beller in St Denis. See: www.parisgalaxies.net
Paris College of Art
Creative Leadership and Urban Design Programs
Design and direction of the Creative Leadership program. Series of workshops about the future of the Greater Paris including ethno-sociological and photographic field exploration. Research on the model of artistic places and collaborative platform models (including the economic view). See: www.parisgalaxies.net