The patient city is therefore first and foremost about applications for those who have to wait in the city. First and foremost around transport infrastructures, but more generally around large public institutions (hospitals, administrations, etc.).
The modern city has little patience for immobility. And it's almost a contradiction in terms to plan waiting areas in places designed for mass, flow and efficiency. In order to compensate for the lack of time, and in the best cases, public spaces are simply designed for short waiting periods: benches or standard furniture, with increasingly individual designs. We don't want to have to wait too long... The modern city also does a poor job of integrating vulnerability. Patience is a necessity for the most vulnerable: families with children, the elderly, people with disabilities, not to mention the homeless.
The patient city values waiting
In the projects we are working on, particularly around major transport infrastructures, we can see that waiting is no longer just about "management", where we have to store flows of people in transit, where we use the time available to consume. Waiting is also a function that is used to develop new services and new uses, and to bring people together in spaces that are no longer purely utilitarian. Enhancing the value of waiting time in these major infrastructures involves the development of convivial spaces where people can read, play the piano or even exercise, as well as personal or public services (see the France Services centres, third places and concierge services set up in stations).
Egis assisted Ile-de-France Mobilités with a study and then with the design of a "reference system for station services". Our recommendations were based on a twofold observation: waiting and connecting at stations can be both "pain points" and privileged moments in passengers' journeys, depending on the efforts made to improve the comfort and atmosphere of the station; moreover, thanks to their strategic positioning and identification, they can encourage a return to proximity by hosting activities and services aimed at local residents and stakeholders, paradoxically helping to curb hypermobility and its excesses.
The benefits of slowness
After decades of acceleration, cities and medium-sized towns are gradually rediscovering the benefits of slowness. Walkability, cyclability and the sharing of public space are the new indicators. We're reopening night train lines that were closed a few years ago. But isn't this just a green revival of urban efficiency? Travelling in your sleep saves time, exercising on your way to work maximises your day... But these slower ways of doing things have the advantage of reducing the gap between the average city dweller and those who are more vulnerable, both physically and economically: anticipation in journeys, sobriety in means of travel, "taking time" for pleasure and not just because you have to.
The pleasure of waiting and contemplation in the city
Waiting in infrastructure is also an opportunity to renew modern utilitarianism and market the region. Long corridors are transformed into exhibition areas or large panels recalling the totems of the area they serve. Railway stations and airport terminals remain the first and last places tourists see in a city when they look up from their phones. In Marseille, the station forecourt offers a panoramic view of the city that invites contemplation. It's a rare example of an urban location that combines efficiency (station, infrastructure) and "beauty". In the city, people also wait for pleasure. Squares, gardens, fountains and works of art in public spaces are also designed for this purpose. This "urban generosity" is interesting to observe and analyse. Often close to the places of power, nobility or institutions of a city, we were reminded of some relatively daring examples of fountain programming in priority districts. This is the case, for example, in the Fontbarlette district of Valence. Quality 'free' water is not just for the city's wealthy.
Keeping urban users patient during construction...
Let's change our perspective. A patient city is also a city waiting to be transformed or renovated. In recent years, as metropolises have reclaimed large urban areas, we have seen the development of approaches aimed at exploiting the waiting period before work begins. In some cases, the construction site opens up visually, becoming a place for contemplation of a city in transformation, which can also be "Instagrammed". This is the case of the Grand Paris Express construction sites, where artistic and cultural expression is encouraged and the site is opened up for the duration of the transformation to add value to the time spent waiting and working, to accompany the transformation and to help people wait for the project to be completed.
More often, however, empty, underused or derelict spaces are used for transitional or tactical urban planning. It's a classic way of trying out new uses for a space... or, where it's more difficult, getting people to return.
In Avignon, for example, Egis worked with the city and the agglomeration to develop a transitional urban planning approach to encourage walking, resting and waiting, as well as the comfort of pedestrians in the priority district during the long period of urban renewal and land availability. In Lannion, the Léguer quays were temporarily equipped with street furniture, greenery, a "guinguette" and sports activities for one summer. Following this success, the facilities were adapted and made permanent in a project called "Quai des possibles".
A malleable city that juggles all its temporalities
Finally, the city is patient... when spaces are underused, for a few hours (evenings, nights), days (weekends) or even seasons (resorts). We are increasingly involved in supporting developers who want to work on the sharing of spaces between different uses. This is the challenge faced by Lyon Parc Auto (LPA), for example, which wanted to extend the functions of its underground car parks and for which we helped to programme the "Terrasse des Docks" centre in partnership with sociologists and behavioural scientists.
In the low season, schools no longer wait, but expand public space thanks to the weekend opening of school playgrounds organised by the Paris City Council. In the low season, hoteliers are rethinking their accommodation to offer nomadic teleworkers a "workation" experience and new services.
During the day and in the evening, the analysis of uses has led to the programming of a project for a third place in Gimont, proposing cross-uses over time and the sharing of needs (in terms of parking, storage, energy or space...) between a media library, tertiary premises, an art practice space, premises for the tourist office and associative actors.
The patient city is the inclusive city
Finally, if we draw together the threads of patience in the city and a city that (us?) waits, a common approach emerges. That of programming an inclusive city that takes into account the uses of the slowest, the most fragile, the least listened to, those whose uses cannot be 'monetised'.
It's as if the hyper-efficiency of the city now demands some kind of balance. Fast and slow uses must coexist, and immobility must be organised and supported. As some parts of the city become active, others fall into disuse, providing an opportunity for new practices and new intersections to emerge,
In the end, it's probably in this balance between intensity and breathing that we find the right degree of urbanity.
