Le littoral comme territoire de projets

The "Le littoral comme territoire de projets" (The coastline as a territory for projects) partnership teaching and research chair of the French Ministry of Culture brings together researchers, teachers, public institutional partners and private economic players around a scientific project focused on the future of coastlines in view of climate risks.


A scientific project focused on the future of coastal areas Faced with the impacts of climate change, coastal areas are today the focus of numerous concerns: rising sea levels, coastal erosion, ecosystem disruption, intensive coastalization... Today, 60% of the world's population lives less than 100 kilometers from a shoreline. This juxtaposition of remarkable ecosystems and complex urban systems makes these areas dynamic and exemplary. They present the coastline as a singular object of study, whose issues cut across the various fields of study of architecture schools: the discipline of architectural design, urban and landscape design, land-use planning practice, ecological thinking... Recent experiments on coastlines have demonstrated the need to reinterrogate inherited economic, spatial and cultural models. Local and national players have identified challenges to which only new research, methods and experimentation can provide answers. Because it is both a forum for debate and a source of knowledge, the territory project is the scientific driving force behind the Chair. Not only does it enable us to analyze existing processes so as to reinvent them, it also federates the various players involved, so as to re-enchant the future. This "designed" territorial project plays a central role in the approach: it refers to the common language of architecture, urban planning and landscape, and engages the project approach. Through experimentation in the territories, the launch of research and the introduction of new teaching, the Chair aims to consolidate and disseminate its expertise to meet the contemporary challenges of the coast.

A scientific project focused on the future of coastal areas
Faced with the impacts of climate change, coastal areas are today the focus of numerous concerns: rising sea levels, coastal erosion, ecosystem disruption, intensive coastalization... Today, 60% of the world's population lives less than 100 kilometers from a shoreline. This juxtaposition of remarkable ecosystems and complex urban systems makes these areas dynamic and exemplary. They present the coastline as a singular object of study, whose issues cut across the various fields of study of architecture schools: the discipline of architectural design, urban and landscape design, land-use planning practice, ecological thinking...
Recent experiments on coastlines have demonstrated the need to reinterrogate inherited economic, spatial and cultural models. Local and national players have identified challenges to which only new research, methods and experimentation can provide answers. Because it is both a forum for debate and a source of knowledge, the territory project is the scientific driving force behind the Chair. Not only does it enable us to analyze existing processes so as to reinvent them, it also federates the various players involved, so as to re-enchant the future.
This "designed" territorial project plays a central role in the approach: it refers to the common language of architecture, urban planning and landscape, and engages the project approach.
Through experimentation in the territories, the launch of research and the introduction of new teaching, the Chair aims to consolidate and disseminate its expertise to meet the contemporary challenges of the coast.


A teaching and research chair Focusing on this particularly cross-disciplinary theme, the "Coastline as a project territory" partnership teaching and research chair brings together researchers and teachers, public institutional partners and private economic players. The result of a long-standing collaboration between the Paris-Est School of Urban and Regional Architecture and Puca, the chair was established in 2018, with the arrival of new partners with local roots and specific technical contributions: the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Marseille, Artelia, the Université Gustave Eiffel and the Université des Antilles et de la Guyane. Since 2019, the chair has been accredited by the French Ministry of Culture. The chair is under the scientific responsibility of Éric Alonzo, architect and urban planner, professor and researcher at the École d'architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est, and Sébastien Marot, environmental historian and philosopher, HDR professor and researcher at the École d'architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est. From 2018 to 2021, the chair was coordinated by Thomas Beillouin, architect and urban planner, Doctor of Architecture. It is now coordinated by Isaline Maire, architect, urban planner and doctoral student.

A teaching and research chair
Focusing on this particularly cross-disciplinary theme, the "Coastline as a project territory" partnership teaching and research chair brings together researchers and teachers, public institutional partners and private economic players. The result of a long-standing collaboration between the Paris-Est School of Urban and Regional Architecture and Puca, the chair was established in 2018, with the arrival of new partners with local roots and specific technical contributions: the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Marseille, Artelia, the Université Gustave Eiffel and the Université des Antilles et de la Guyane.
Since 2019, the chair has been accredited by the French Ministry of Culture.
The chair is under the scientific responsibility of Éric Alonzo, architect and urban planner, professor and researcher at the École d'architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est, and Sébastien Marot, environmental historian and philosopher, HDR professor and researcher at the École d'architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est.
From 2018 to 2021, the chair was coordinated by Thomas Beillouin, architect and urban planner, Doctor of Architecture. It is now coordinated by Isaline Maire, architect, urban planner and doctoral student.


Research focus: a long-term vision of the coastline<br>Methodological foundations<br><br>Since the Xynthia storm of 2010, other exceptional climatic events have affected the national territory, both in mainland France and overseas: winter storms of 2013-2014 on the Aquitaine coast, hurricanes Irma and Maria, or even more recently the flash floods in the Var. <br>With this in mind, the government has set up experiments and action programs to help territories adapt to coastal hazards and climate change. These eminently multidisciplinary initiatives have mobilized new project resources on a scale and according to issues unprecedented in regional planning. Coastal dynamics suggest a spatial recomposition based on a long-term vision, which is far from being an ordinary subject for urban planning. "Imagining the coastline of tomorrow" implies anchoring coastal development in an ecological as well as a cultural perspective.<br>In an attempt to define this long-term vision, the Chair's scientific approach is based around five research hypotheses that are bound to intersect and which, in essence, can be likened to five methodological foundations:<br><br>1. Reintegrating nature's long cycles into planning <br>2. Reinventing the imagination of leisure and tourism in the Anthropocene.<br>3. Recomposing the coastline around a thickness or "line to hinterland".<br>4. Address the ecological and economic challenges of the coastline.<br>5. Make the project a multi-disciplinary vehicle for thinking about coastal mutations.<br> <br>find out more about the research areas →

Research focus: a long-term vision of the coastline Methodological foundations Since the Xynthia storm of 2010, other exceptional climatic events have affected the national territory, both in mainland France and overseas: winter storms of 2013-2014 on the Aquitaine coast, hurricanes Irma and Maria, or even more recently the flash floods in the Var. With this in mind, the government has set up experiments and action programs to help territories adapt to coastal hazards and climate change. These eminently multidisciplinary initiatives have mobilized new project resources on a scale and according to issues unprecedented in regional planning. Coastal dynamics suggest a spatial recomposition based on a long-term vision, which is far from being an ordinary subject for urban planning. "Imagining the coastline of tomorrow" implies anchoring coastal development in an ecological as well as a cultural perspective. In an attempt to define this long-term vision, the Chair's scientific approach is based around five research hypotheses that are bound to intersect and which, in essence, can be likened to five methodological foundations: 1. Reintegrating nature's long cycles into planning 2. Reinventing the imagination of leisure and tourism in the Anthropocene. 3. Recomposing the coastline around a thickness or "line to hinterland". 4. Address the ecological and economic challenges of the coastline. 5. Make the project a multi-disciplinary vehicle for thinking about coastal mutations. find out more about the research areas →


Research fields <br>Five major families of research fields<br><br>The methodological foundations outlined above, through their transversal character, lead us to propose five families of fields crystallizing very concrete issues.<br>The littoralization of shores invites us to re-interrogate the future of today's metropolized and urban territories and the heritage of remarkable seaside resorts. In this sense, we intend to focus on the built heritage, but also on the remarkable public and natural spaces that form a singular landscape in seaside resorts. We'll also be looking at the adaptation of industrial and port metropolises and megalopolises, where the juxtaposition of infrastructures, highly urbanized cores and major industrial elements pose major challenges. <br>Risks linked to rising sea levels, in particular, have highlighted the extreme urgency of intervening on island and ultra-marine territories. These areas are currently undergoing the consequences of climate change, and as such, provide us with the future directions of the consequences of climate change: increased socio-economic and ecological vulnerabilities, juxtaposition of hazards...<br>We then turn our attention to the retro-littoral environments, whose place is fundamental in the territory project approach we intend to lead. The singular territorial thicknesses that stand out in the various study areas are all situations that make it possible to think about alleviating urban pressures on the current coastline, and to instill multiscalar project responses.<br>Finally, the inland waters constituted by the lake territories in the hinterlands of the shores are sites whose assets can today be counterpoints to the problems of coastalization in view of the climatic challenges.<br><br>1. The heritage of aging seaside resorts<br>2. Large cities, metropolises and industrial and port megapolises<br>3. Insular and ultra-marine territories<br>4. Retrolittoral environments<br>5. Inland waters<br> <br>find out more about research fields →

Research fields Five major families of research fields The methodological foundations outlined above, through their transversal character, lead us to propose five families of fields crystallizing very concrete issues. The littoralization of shores invites us to re-interrogate the future of today's metropolized and urban territories and the heritage of remarkable seaside resorts. In this sense, we intend to focus on the built heritage, but also on the remarkable public and natural spaces that form a singular landscape in seaside resorts. We'll also be looking at the adaptation of industrial and port metropolises and megalopolises, where the juxtaposition of infrastructures, highly urbanized cores and major industrial elements pose major challenges. Risks linked to rising sea levels, in particular, have highlighted the extreme urgency of intervening on island and ultra-marine territories. These areas are currently undergoing the consequences of climate change, and as such, provide us with the future directions of the consequences of climate change: increased socio-economic and ecological vulnerabilities, juxtaposition of hazards... We then turn our attention to the retro-littoral environments, whose place is fundamental in the territory project approach we intend to lead. The singular territorial thicknesses that stand out in the various study areas are all situations that make it possible to think about alleviating urban pressures on the current coastline, and to instill multiscalar project responses. Finally, the inland waters constituted by the lake territories in the hinterlands of the shores are sites whose assets can today be counterpoints to the problems of coastalization in view of the climatic challenges. 1. The heritage of aging seaside resorts 2. Large cities, metropolises and industrial and port megapolises 3. Insular and ultra-marine territories 4. Retrolittoral environments 5. Inland waters find out more about research fields →

The Chair's players
*Paris-Est School of Architecture
Éric Alonzo architect-urban planner, professor, co-director of the DSA d'architecte-urbaniste (École d'architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est), researcher at the OCS laboratory (École d'architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est), scientific co-director of the partnership chair "le littoral comme territoire de projets"
Sébastien Marot environmental historian and philosopher, HDR professor, researcher at the OCS laboratory (École d'architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est), scientific co-director of the partnership chair "le littoral comme territoire de projets"
architect-urban planner, doctoral student at the INAMA (ensa-Marseille) and Urbanistica (Istituto universitario di architettura di Venezia) laboratories, second doctoral student of the chair, associate lecturer & research engineer at the OCS laboratory (École d'architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est), current coordinator of the partnership chair "le littoral comme territoire de projets".
Félicien Pecquet-Caumeil architect-urban planner, doctoral student at OCS/AUSser, third doctoral student of the chair, co-founder of Meat architectures & territoires
Julien Romane architect-urban planner, practitioner and co-founder of the Les Marneurs agency [winner of the Palmarès des Jeunes Urbanistes 2022 for their approach to coastal issues related to the risk of marine submersion and flooding], associate lecturer at Ensa Paris-est, in charge of coastal studies within the architect-urban planner DSA
André Tavares architect, researcher at the Centro de estudos de arquitectura e urbanismo of the Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto (FAUP), guest researcher at the OCS laboratory (École d'architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est), editor and programmer of the Garagem Sul/Centre Culturel de Belém (Lisbon) architecture exhibitions.

École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Marseille
Laurent Hodebert architect-urban planner, professor, researcher at the INAMA laboratory (ensa-Marseille), coordinator of the partnership chair "le littoral comme territoire de projets" for ensa-Marseille
Éric Dussol architect-urban planner, lecturer, researcher at the Project(s) laboratory (ensa-Marseille)
Frédéric Gimmig architect-urban planner, lecturer and practitioner

Plan Urbanisme Construction Architecture (Puca)
Hélène Pesquine architecte et urbaniste de l'État, secrétaire permanente
Emmanuelle Durandau architecte et urbaniste de l'État, secrétaire permanente adjointe

Artelia
Bernard Couvert geographer, engineer and hydromorphology specialist, project director, head of Consulting and Strategy
Thomas Beillouin architect-urban planner, project manager at Artelia, associate researcher at the OCS laboratory (École d'architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est), first doctor of the chair and coordinator from 2018 to 2021, consultant and referent of the chair "le littoral comme territoire de projets" at Artelia
Melissa Belmekki urban planner, project manager and consultant for the chair "le littoral comme territoire de projets" with Artelia

University environment
Bruno Barroca architect and geomatician, HDR lecturer, Université Gustave Eiffel - Paris-est
Nacima Baron geographer, HDR lecturer, Université Gustave Eiffel - Paris-est
Pascal Saffache geographer, HDR Professor, Université des Antilles et de Guyane

Scientific Director (in French)
Éric Alonzo
Sébastien Marot

Coordination
Isaline Maire

Partners
École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Marseille
Artelia
Plan Urbanisme Construction Architecture (Puca)
Université des Antilles et de la Guyane
Gustave Eiffel University

To be continued
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Illustration
Oleron Island facing the risks of rising sea levels, Isaline Maire, 2022