Conference Topics

AXE 1 - Buildings and sustainability: What type of design?

Animation : M. Dubois - Université Laval- Quebec et M. Méquignon - LERASS

Throughout history, architecture has asserted itself as a symbolic power which distinguishes it from other human productions intended for daily use. Whether magnified or vernacular architecture, buildings have always fulfilled a symbolic function at least as important as the functional use they meet. Noting growing challenges, technique has allowed the production of these buildings which are bearers of as many messages as symbols. Today, under the required constraints of sustainable development, clearly stated objectives designated to buildings concern their environmental performance. The media and politicians often set objectives and orient policies without waiting for the results of scientific research. For example, through a required life cycle approach, they make major contributions to the production characteristics of buildings without actually addressing the difficult issues about the impact on longevity. However, buildings and occupying them involves osmosis between the two aspects of the same problem. The perspective that we established for this axis answers the following questions:

• How can the symbolic value of buildings be preserved in addition to the technical performance and contradictions that are imposed today?
• How can science, technology and society be articulated and reticulated to meet the need to build livable buildings?
• To what extent are science and technology able to appropriate issues different from their own?
• Is too much importance given, today, to the technician’s vision that neglects the societal approach on which buildings can and must feed?

AXE 2 - Standardization and sustainable cities: what type of guarantees?

Animation : G. Zissis – LAPLACE et J-P Mignot- LERASS

Sustainable development, from a practical point of view, is by definition a normative system: in fact, the sustainability of a system is strictly dependent on the standards governing its establishment. Under these conditions, the construction of sustainable cities is part of a process in which certification standards, established for this purpose, play a vital role. Thus, the actors or agents who uphold sustainable cities rely on the systematization of sustainability features duly standardized to provide the framework for the building of these same cities. Faced with this systematization of sustainability features, the technocratic drift in which these features are a part of emphasize that the implication in a sustainable development process can not be reduced to any labelling process. In fact, technically, a standard is generally necessary for specific cases (equipment changes, public lighting, incentives to change behaviour, etc.) but the repercussions of its implementation may have not been fully measured. Thus, the technical standardization of society can lead to effects completely opposite to those initially sought. Therefore, we suggest highlighting not only the problems related to the epistemic status of the standard but also the implementation conditions that are likely to allow the recognition of an approach in compliance with the various criteria of sustainable development

Consequently, we expect answers to the following questions:

• Are the standards, as they were founded and established, a guarantee of sustainability?
• Will technical and scientific expertise permanently abide by these same constraints and ensure their continuity?
• Do the standards meet the technical functions assigned to them?
• Finally, in this case, how are scientific, technical and societal approaches articulated?

AXE 3 - Smart Cities and sustainability: what type of performance?

 Animation : M-P. Gleizes - IRIT, H. Ait Haddou - LIFAM et L. Teresi LERASS

Smart cities, being an extension of sustainable cities, present themselves as the new answer to the complex question concerning the management and development of urban spaces in which information technologies are expected to make major contributions to improving the management of flow (energy, water, transport) and risk (pollution). Built around a system of knowledge based on the massive collection of information, the management of these various networks will be ensured through sophisticated computer models that administrators will rely on "to make effective decisions". Such a configuration raises many questions and the spectre of "Big Brother/data" is not far off. The issues of this axis revolve around the following questions:

• Will technological devices be effective even though the technical, managerial and legal integration of these networks have not been carried out yet and what are the obstacles of such a convergence?
• What are the real contributions (and limits) of these collection and information analysis devices in terms of knowledge of the urban environment?
• Public and private spaces having been fully invested by ITC, what guarantees (technical or social) will be made to individuals and how effective will they be?
• The relevance of decision making is one of the major justifications for smart cities, what will be the role of civic participation?
• The implementation of a centralized information system and data growth (but not information or knowledge) is not conducive to the development of such participation. Is there a place for civic participation in this schema?
• Do smart cities not penalize the changeover of a disciplinary society to that of a society of control where technological devices will be the main vectors of undisputable standardization (because it is based on figures) in divided societies?

AXE 4 - Building sustainable cities: what type of citizenship?

• To what extent do sustainable cities make us (users, professionals, researchers, etc.) citizens?
• How does emancipation and aspiration combine with the autonomy of citizens within the directives concerning future generations?
• Do the requirements, in terms of knowledge, that induce a sustainable approach to cities make people incompetent?
• Cities, considered urban ecosystems, globalize their apprehension ("think globally") but fragment their processing in a multitude of sectors and with specialized actors (logistics, waste, data, etc.).
• How can these two scales be reconciled and what relation do they have to urban experiences?

We can see that building sustainable cities or having cities in transition involves measuring the place and role given to each actor and their ability to question and transform them.