Grand Paris - Places en Relation

A research-led proposal for an annual cultural experience to help a Parisian suburb transition into ‘Grand Paris’.

The Grand Paris Metro project was underway and the critical design institute ‘Civic-city’ was commissioned to come up with soft interventions for a smooth transition from suburb to grand Paris for its people. The project was part of a bigger initiative that was exhibited and presented at the Pompidou Centre in Paris with 12 participating cities from all over the world.

Context : Constant Urbanisation

Arcueil Cachan 1927

Arcueil Cachan 2017

In a world where a large majority of the population lives and works in cities, the role and responsibilities of them are bigger every day. Perhaps more aware of global interdependencies, often more open and progressive than nations, they start to connect, to talk in synergy about the great challenges of our planet.

One such challenge in urban space is constant development. From towns to cities to grand cities. Taking the case of Paris for example is a huge city and has many suburbs that have formed due forces like urban sprawl etc.

The heart of the Paris metropolitan area has undergone a significant urban transformation for some years now, and urban change is expected to intensify in the coming years with the development of the new public transport sector of the New Grand Paris.

In the wake of this change, there will be a lot of flux which will affect a lot of people. We focus on a small region that comprises the Grand Paris Express : Arcueil-Cachan.

Observing the evolution of the neighborhoods of the future stations like Arcueil Cachan will help to better understand the direct effects on life in the aftermath.

In the primary research phase, I collected information and data from sources online and offline. In this process before making a field visit I wanted to compare the amount people frequented the Arcueil Cachan Metro station with respect to different times of the day and week. The finding was interesting because it gave a rough ground to begin my research.

Time in Relation

This time factor gave a lot of insight as the variation of the number of people can be directly linked to the variation in sound. Based on this primary data I visited Arcueil Cachan on different days to gain a more holistic understanding of the soundscape it has to offer.

The First Walk

The first thing you notice is how there is a lack of people on the streets, it’s a concrete jungle with a huge number of cars. But who drives these cars? Where are the people? It was so quiet here that the space almost threatened me. I just wanted to keep walking.

One instance was while walking uphill I could hear a very starnge hiss, I was surprised that I could even hear it because it was a very very subdued sound. What I want to highlight from this instance is, how quiet the Arcueil Cachan really is and this was the moment where my research took a very uncharterd path.

There is a relationship between the development of a city and its soundscape. City sounds are omnipresent. They inform us about spaces, events and identity. As individuals they affect us deeply. Paradoxically though, sounds are little discussed when new city developments are considered. How does city development change the sound of an area? Can positive soundscapes be created for people during development? If yes, what ideas exist for achieving this?

“Ecology is the study of the relationship between living organisms and their environment. Acoustic ecology is the study of sounds in relationship to life and society.” Shafer. With these notions and ideas, I plunged into the world of sound and how it can affect our perception of a space. With respect Arcueil Cachan in the wake of the Grand Paris Express I began collecting data and sampling sounds at different times to draw comparisons and then further analyse.

Methodology

Spectographic excerpt of sounds at Arcueil Cacahn station.

To collect data, I began with the metro station itself - recording over a persiof of 20 minutes the sounds of the Arcueil Cachan station. The sound was then put in a ‘Spectogram’ visualiser to graphically represent the changes in the sound.

The image is an excerpt from the entire piece which is like a ‘Sound lapse’. The denser and darker areas represent the variety and loudness of the sound and the lighter regions spell little or no sound. Of course, one has to keep in the mind the limits of the recording device, which is in this case a smartphone. (One Plus 2)

This visualisation of sound is also interesting because it does not make a distinction between the kind of sound or the nature of sound that it represents at the first glance.

Comparing Sound Tapestries

Sound, as simple as it may sound has a lot of layers and complexity. I wanted to break these complexities to be able to better analyse the sound samples.

I took the RER B to Arcueil Cachan to collect some samples of the train station itself. Next, I took the same line RER B to Denfert- Rochereau and collected sound samples from there. In this process I had two notions - Arcueil Cachan is rather quiet and does not have a lot of city sounds while Denferet-Rochereau a very busy station has a lot of complexity of sound.

The difference here too was very vast. Arcueil Cachan is a suburb, that has a limited amount of sound textures and sounds in general. The usual metro gurgling at the station, the infrequent passing a of car and very eerily - the wind.

This finding is a great opportunity to introduce more sounds in the given environment.

Walter Murch, an Oscar winning sound editor said in an interview that the way looking at paintings can make you see the world in a different way, listening to interestingly arranged sounds can make you hear the world in a different way.

A study in the city of Phoenix in the US illustrated that a park which usually was deemed as unsafe was suddenly percieved to be safe once a certain soundscape that was designed was introduced. These examples only tell us how important this often overlooked phenomenon is.

Thus, the lack of a rich sound tapestry can be an opportunity to create an experience of sound to enhance the urban life.

Can we create an integrative sound experience that can help in transitioning to Grand Paris?

We are heavily dependent on our sight to perceive a place. As a student of visual design, I ask my self of the possibilities beyond the medium to perceive a space. Can sound be an interesting way of looking at a place? The way we use visuals to communicate and create experiences, can we do that with sound?

Changes are well documented in pictures, but what about the soundscapes of a changing environment?

How does the changing soundscape affect the people of a place? What are the ways in which we can look at this change and use it as an opportunity to enhance experiences.

How can we integrate Arcueil Cachan+Bagneux into mainstream Paris (or Grand Paris) so that it isn’t just one of the many ‘suburbs’? Can we create a cultural experience that can help in making this integration/transition?