When it comes to sustainability in construction or urban development projects, it’s often the environmental component that is highlighted – and rightly so. It’s less obvious how the integrate the other two pillars, social and economic, into a project.
A research initiative carried out as part of the “Midi” Urban Renovation Contract (Contrat de Rénovation Urbaine – CRU) has enabled us, together with our partners Osmos Network and IDEA Consult, to get a better grasp of these other two components and how they can be integrated into projects.
Investigate first, design later
One of the research objectives was to understand the challenges facing social and economic operators in the area (associations, businesses, companies, etc.), so as to set out some actions capable of addressing them.
We approached the question from the perspective of collective intelligence: after all, aren’t the main stakeholders the best experts on the topic?
We combined two methods of contacting locals, allowing us to quickly obtain usable results:
- A basic survey of the district, on foot, at various times throughout the week, equipped with a camera and a notebook;
- Several individual interviews, in person or over the phone, often planned and sometimes spontaneous;
- A diagnostic walk with the group of interviewees. We toured the district and exchanged points of view on both observations and solutions.
Several types of tools were used for the reporting of the results, which was a crucial step:
- A map of interviews in the district (what is said and where?).
- Personas (fictitious portraits inspired by the interviews), which are very useful for anonymously echoing personal stories.
- A narrative map of the district, summarising experiences and projects, blending the present and the future of the district, all in a single image.
Lessons for urban reconstruction
An important lesson learnt is that collective intelligence methods are powerful tools for going beyond the morphological and material understanding of a district. By gaining a better understanding of local dynamics (social, economic), projects can help to activate them. It’s no longer just a matter of being part of a context, but of making a positive and transparent contribution. Make no mistake about it, these well-applied methods could not only help us to redesign the layout of a public area, but also to design a programme, or even to find future occupants for a building.
Our experiment was not intended to result in a concrete project, but we’ve learned that, at a certain scale, the investment is worthwhile, not only because of the social acceptability it generates, but also, quite simply, because this work makes sense before we start putting together and designing a project.
The method is explained in a practical guide published by hub.brussels, which will help to multiply the knock-on effects of urban renewal on the social and economic dynamics of local districts.
