L'urbanisme de l'entre-deux

The democratization of vehicles has often reduced the public space to a place of circulation. For the last fifteen years, the habits of mobility have evolved: a system centered around the automobile leaves room for compositions between different modes of displacement and communication. Some urban planners see it as an opportunity to rethink the planning process, they are inventing ways of operating to give the public space the status of being a common good. The question is: what is the role of this emerging urbanism towards mobility practices?

This thesis proposes a grid of interpretation on the public space under the prism of living practices. Qualitative surveys conducted in Switzerland reveal that the choice of a mobility practice depends on expectations - needs and wants - multidimensional, dynamic and situated. These elements are determined by a large number of factors, which are not all compatible with each other. They correspond to the capacities and convictions of the inhabitant and to what the environment offers. Expectations evolve over time and according to the context. The appearance or modification of certain factors leads to a reconfiguration of expectations, which may lead to a change in practice.

Urban planners, because they have the power to modify public spaces, have a role to play in the accompaniment of new practices of mobility. However, to make changes that meet the expectations of inhabitants, they lack the tools. This thesis defines a practice of urbanism that responds to this gap. It is about proposing new virtualities – the invites – that the inhabitants have the possibility of rejuvenation and in turn the opportunity to transform this into prises.

The grid of interpretation was tested in situ. Changes in public spaces in Lausanne and surrounding areas made it possible to work simultaneously on aspects appertaining to the mobility and public space developments, while integrating the inhabitants into the ongoing planning processes. Without intervening on the infrastructure, places exclusively dedicated to automobile trafic have accommodated alternative behaviours. Transformations that have been made are neither a consensus nor a compromise: they are matters to be debated. Beyond an answer to the expectations expressed by the inhabitants, latent expectations are revealed. This urbanisme de l’entre-deux participates in enlarging the field of possibilities when it comes to the public space in order to support perceived expectations, but also those which are not yet materialized. The operational actors activate the public space to support the societal change that is defined as the transition of mobility.

By articulating theoretical, empirical and research-by-doing, this work draws a bridge between social sciences and operational urban planning. From a monofunctional space, the public space becomes the support of a diversity of behaviours. In this, the urbanisme de l’entre-deux makes visible the resilience of territories organized for vehicles. It connects the temporalities (past, present, future), the concerns (daily experience and global vision) and the scales of intervention (from micro-intervention to territorial planning).