And tomorrow, what do we do? 190 contributions for thinking about the city

“To enable everyone to contribute, exchange, debate and imagine the 'afterwards' together, the Pavillon de l'Arsenal opened the forum 'Et demain, on fait quoi?' (And tomorrow, what do we do?) during the lockdown. For three months, this virtual space for sharing, initiated as part of the 'Architectures à la maison' (Architectures at home) program, made it possible to collect and disseminate articles, opinion pieces, drawings, projects, etc. The 198 contributions brought together in this work bear witness to the concerns and aspirations of each and every one of us to transform and adapt the city and its architecture. The whole forms a corpus of stimulating, sometimes dissonant reflections, bearing witness to our contemporary urban questions. Arranged chronologically, without filtering, as they arrived, they reveal existing questions or bring to light new issues.”

When the Pavilion reopened, this forum also gave rise to an “evolving exhibition, accompanied by a series of in situ and online meetings, with the aim of enabling everyone to continue sharing and discussing existing or new urban issues revealed by the health crisis.”

It is 12:34 p.m. at the Atelier Franck Boutté, in the shady courtyard at 43 bis rue d'Hautpoul, and four collaborators are gathered around the question “and tomorrow, what do we do?” It is D+102 after the start of the 2020 lockdown. The Covid-19 crisis has revealed an era of contradictions. We are emerging from a time of upheaval, of shaken certainties, of upheavals; but also a time of standstill for the city as we know it, for the lives that are linked to it. The city with people, people on the move. Households went into lockdown, housing became densely repopulated, cities were emptied of their citizens. Access to its infrastructure, amenities and service centers was limited; construction sites and factories were suspended; only logistical and health flows were prioritized. Other ways of living and working have emerged as people have adapted, driven by the need to continue living, working, getting away from it all... deconfining... in an unprecedented context. As activities gradually resume, our four free spirits are organizing themselves to respond in 5 key tensions to the singular question of the Arsenal, which nevertheless seems to call out a thousand others. And the Free Brains for Change (FB4C) are thus exploring the field of possibilities for living sustainably on the planet and in its places.

These 5 key tensions are:

• Environment, friend or foe?
• Continue or do things differently?
• Accelerate or slow down?
• Distancing or pooling?
• Local or global effort?