I had the fortune and privilege to participate in the 25th session of the International Urban Planning and Design Atelier (“Workshop”) in Paris, France in the summer of 2007. It was an unforgettable and wonderful experience.

The Workshop
Every August, about 25 students from different design programs across the globe gather in Cergy Pontoise, northwest of Paris near Le Corbusier’s famous Villa Savoy, for this workshop. For quality and efficiency reasons, only two students per school or university may enter. The workshop insists that each school or university send its best representatives, knowing that these students will be “ambassadors” of their school and of their country. It is also desirable that students from the same school be placed on different teams.

The theme for each workshop involves a difficult project, including issues in landscape, economics, urban planning, etc. For 2007, the theme was “The Future Planning for the Aeropolis in the North of Paris,” concerning the expansive Charles de Gaulle Aeroport and another airport, “Le Bourge,” a business airport also located in the area. This project was one of the most difficult and complex themes ever.

The annual workshops are supported by local governments, related companies and associated universities. For instance, in 2007, over 20 groups were involved in organizing the atelier.

My Personal Experience at the Workshop
We needed to give our solution as to how to make this area into a future airport-city in four weeks’ time. My team consisted of six students from Japan, France, Colombia, Turkey, and China. We got busy working with a large volume of information and maps.

The most difficult thing for this kind of workshop was the communication barrier. It’s so difficult for every team member to understand each other’s exact idea because our native languages are different from each other. I discovered that it takes much more time than at my home institution, Tongji University, Shanghai, P.R. of China. I had to be more patient, polite, and tolerant. This is very important when you participate in international affairs.

Faye (third from left) and teammates in France
Photo courtesy Mo Fei

Complex project-easy solution
This particular project had some critical issues such as: (a) How to control the urban sprawl of Paris? (b) Where to build new residential areas? (c) How to reduce the noise pollution? (d) How to improve the quality of life? (e) How to improve the traffic accessibility, especially in the west-east direction?

My team understood that it was impossible to solve all the problems, so we selected the most important points. Our projects include the following parts:

1. Improve the quality of life with a new accessible transportation system. This study area lacks west-east directional traffic links and there are lots of fragmented land-uses which are mostly cut by freeways and other motorways. To improve the accessibility and reduce the impact of the car, we tried to improve the local links (pedestrian, bike, minibus, etc.) and help the inhabitants reach major public transportation within 20 minutes.

We also added elements of central meeting points for this region. The functions of these meeting points included commercial areas, amenities, cultural features, etc., based upon our spatial analysis of each district. These meeting points helped people to easily traverse the study area.

2. Sustainable development design for the new residential area.
To control future urban sprawl and build new housing areas for people, we focused on areas within existing communities. The houses were designed with a vertical garden and plenty of parking space to help residents easily make the change between private and public transportation.

3. Change the image of the airport from a gate to a window.
The airport is the gate for people and material coming to the city. But the other very important function is that it gives people a first impression of the city. Thus, we opened the airport to the surrounding area, built a new progressing center (attractive space to create more possibilities for people to meet and engage in commerce, entertainment, public education, etc.), and extended the CDG-Val (automated train) staging area, which was originally for car circulation, to pedestrian and bicycle traffic. This transformed the center and improved the open space quality in a way that enhanced the image of the airport.

4. Turn the noise to sound.
This area suffers from airport noise pollution. We used sound technology to transfer the jet noise to music. The new music system is based upon light and the airplane jet traffic affects light sensors, which in turn produces white noise that blocks the jet noise. People will focus their attention on the music coming from the light and this reduces the effect of the real noise from the sky. The unused buildings in the noisy zone are renovated as bars and museums.

Open debate of the juries—a most unforgettable positive critical experience
After the final presentations, the juries began an open debate. The jury team consisted of artists, engineers, professors, architects, urban planners, landscape designers, and administrators of local government who came from all over the world. Different people explained their opinions of our projects based on their backgrounds. It was a great experience to listen to the participants explain their different views.

In the end, I think the international urban design atelier is a very valuable opportunity for students to understand different cultures and learn how to make cooperative designs. They will understand how to handle complex projects and discover their potential abilities.

The French are great hosts and I am very grateful to them for selecting me and giving me such a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow. To examine more about this past year's workshop, one can check the web page:
http://www.archi.fr/ATELIERS-CERGYPONTOISE/ findex.html.

Mo Fei is an undergraduate student of Landscape Architecture in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.

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Images courtesy Jon Burley