Tous les articles par Xenia Laffaille

Urban cooling strategies as interaction opportunities in the public space: a methodological proposal

We are pleased to announce that our oral communication for the international conference CISBAT21 is now published in the special issu of the Journal of Physics: Conference Series.

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Implementation of a solar model and shadow plotting in the context of a 2D GIS: challenges and applications for the cooling effect of tree-covered based greening solutions in urban public spaces

We are pleased to announce the oral communication for the international conference of Spatial Analysis and GEOmatics SAGEO21.

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Experimental sites – summer 2021

This summer, we went to Paris La Défense to investigate three spatio-climatic devices in collaboration with Paris La Défense, Efficacity, Véolia, Université Gustave Eiffel and Engie. Efficacity and Paris La Défense have launched two experiments to refresh public spaces during this summer, also presented as “Oasis of freshness” (additional information: https://efficacity.com/experimentations-oasis-de_fraicheur/ or https: //parisladefense.com/). These include a “refreshing platform” from Seureca / Veolia and a “fresh island – skycooling” from Engie Solutions, placed on the forecourt near the Grande Arche of La Défense (Figure 1, top). In addition, we wanted to add to this campaign a third site, consisting of a landscaped sequence of gardens on slabs, called “Sequence Agam”. It was designed by Atelier Foïs and is located between the fontaine Agam Place and the Basse Place (Figure 1, bottom).

Mobile microclimate and ethnographic observations were carried out between July 18th and 22nd, 2021 between 11:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. for 5 consecutive days, juggling between the three sites. These observations complete the static measurements carried out by permanent stations during the test period. The stations are directly set up on the refreshing platform and the fresh island as well as on the square in between.

Figure 1: Experimental sites in Paris La Défense, summer 2021. Top : oasis of freshness (source : https://efficacity.com/experimentations-oasis-de_fraicheur/), bottom : Experimental garden « Séquence Agam », by Atelier Foïs (source : https://www.atelierfois.com/info.html)
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Characterization of thermal comfort in the city – part 2:

HOW DOES URBAN SPACE DESIGN SHAPE THERMAL COMFORT?

According to Lindberg (2007), Wei et al. (2016), Lin et al. (2017) and Middel et al. (2018), urban morphology (urban canopy geometry, materials and the presence of vegetation) is the most influencing factor for urban microclimate at local and micro scale during the day as well as during the night. Geometry changes air flow, heat flow and the energy balance, while surface coverage changes albedo, moisture availability, and the heating/cooling capacity of the soil (Stewart and Oke, 2012). It influences thus air and surface temperatures, turbulent flows, ventilation, solar radiation and air quality at pedestrian level.

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Characterization of thermal comfort in the city – Part 1:

HOW TO OVERCOME THE GENERIC APPROACH OF UNIVERSAL COMFORT INDICES?

The interest in the potential of public spaces to produce thermal comfort conditions for city dwellers has increased considerably in recent decades (Johansson et al., 2018). In the era of adaptation to global warming, the urban public space design must respond to ecological (creation of urban cool islands), health (prevention of the effects of heat waves), and socioeconomic (events, shops) needs. Thus, the study of these spaces and the thermal effects induced locally and temporally by space-climatic devices raise several scientific questions:

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Experimental sites – summer 2020

In addition to the “Quai des Plantes” experimental site, we investigated two other sites this summer, between July and September 2020: 1) the “Extraordinary Garden” in the Misery quarry and 2) the “Rideau d’eau” (“water curtain” in English) at the “Place Graslin” (Figure 1). The measurement protocols applied are identical to those of “Quai des Plantes”.

Figure 1: Experimental sites in Nantes, summer 2020
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Quai des plantes (Nantes) – an experimental site

One of our experimental sites this summer is the “Quai des Plantes” or “vegetated dock”, located on the Loire river banks in Nantes. Offering a plant nursery, a green promenade and a place for gathering, leisure and festivities, this very mineral site (a former parking lot built on the top board of a reinforced-concrete dock) has been redeveloped over 500 m since the summer of 2017. Today, 1,500 trees planted in pots constitute the perpetual heart of the site, before being planted in the parks and public gardens of the city of Nantes. This ephemeral and dynamic installation revives its historic vocation of transitioning plants coming by colonial ships to the garden of French apothecaries. The transitory nature is also reflected in the desire to transform sustainably the Loire docks into a green axis between the city center and the public transport stop “Gare Maritime” and the lower Chantenay district.

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