Fanny Chavanne

Depaving is the act of removing impermeable materials like concrete or asphalt off the ground. Although it's still very uncommon, it's nevertheless a powerful nature-based solution to increase cities’ resiliency to climate change. Once the soil is free, allowing plants like weeds to grow spontaneously will turn depaved areas into green spaces. These spaces can then cool down the air, reduce flood risks, foster biodiversity, and contribute to social well-being.

WeDepave is a piece of strategic design to help London councils set up impactful and long-term depaving schemes. To achieve an urban mosaics of small–depaved and re-greened spaces, kerbsides (roads' sides where cars can park) were identified as a type of space with a high potential for depaving.

WeDepave offers a knowledge building and sharing platform that involves children, parents, passer-by, and local councils during pilot projects.

Depaved areas will be turned into exploratory fields for pupils aged 7 to 9 to conduct citizen science projects in partnership with scientists to help document on-going urban rewilding. This will include taking pictures regularly to input data onto the platform. An educational app was designed to encourage pupils to take part through gamification and to support these 2-year programmes in selected primary schools.

Overall this project proposes to reflect collectively on how we define and care for nature in urban environments.

Are we ready to accept plants that are more resistant to climate change, such as weeds, instead of traditional and colourful flowerbeds? Down the line, the challenge is to generate the knowledge needed to make councils feel confident about depaving on a larger scale.

The Urban Heat Island effect is the phenomena in which urban areas experience higher temperatures than rural areas.This leads to more cases of heat-related illnesses like heat stroke and more energy consumption to cool down buildings.

This project developed with Kikumoto LAB inside Tokyo University aims to create sustainable refreshing public space for inhabitants of urban areas. The idea is to offer community spaces where people can come to rest, wait for a bus, or exchange books for free.

Using natural resources like rain water and wind, the inside temperature of these spaces is cooled thanks to evapotranspiration. Here are two models of two different design proposals, a tower and a shape inspired by wind flow.