Energy Sobriety and Sustainable Cities

On March 23, 2017, the Nouveaux paysages de la sobriété énergétique: comment les créer?(The New Landscape of Energy Sobriety: How Do We Create Them?) symposium was held at landscape design school École Nationale Supérieure de Paysage (ENSP) in Versailles.

The energy transition is putting the spotlight back on energy conservation, which was advocated in the mid-1970s following the first oil crisis. The French government had established its Energy Savings Agency (AEE) to “hunt out waste,” but its effectiveness was quickly undermined by the oil crisis. However, sobriety in our modern times calls for a much more drastic transformation of our collective lifestyles and living environments. Transition scenarios go as far as recommending slashing our current consumption by half. This raises multiple questions, all of which need addressing, on issues concerning the landscape, sobriety, food production, public spaces, mobility, and many others.

The 2017 seminar organized by the Landscape and Energy Chair shed light on these issues, drawing on the ideas and experiences of actors invested in the transition, and traversing all scales from the macro-region to the micro-sidewalk.

This video looks at the landscape and energy aspects of various Atelier Franck Boutté programs in Morocco and France. Making the wind an ally, designing urban forms to create a natural urban air-conditioning system, and complementing it with enhanced green and blue infrastructure are just some of the strategies for limiting a city’s energy consumption.