Creation of a light trail to empower women walking through the Émile Dubois / Maladrerie in Aubervilliers neighbourhood
PROJECT PRESENTATION
“The Covid-19 pandemic has made the already existing social inequalities even more acute, and particularly those concerning women. The gendered diagnoses of public space carried out by Approche.s! in priority neighbourhoods (Aubervilliers, Clichy-sous-Bois) have objectified this reality. After nightfall, female attendance drops considerably as women bypass the inner neighbourhood and follow only well-lit thoroughfares.
In 2020, Approche.s ! created a daytime signposted trail highlighting the female presence and their cultures of origin in the Émile Dubois / Maladrerie district in Aubervilliers. With FAIRE’s support, this year we want to prototype lighting systems that will accompany women walking after nightfall, in cooperation with the collective of architects Parenthèse.
The light installations will reinterpret the language of the daytime route in three different ways:
1. Acting as a signal: they mark the entrance of the neighbourhood through a luminous carpet of multicultural patterns traced on the ground.
2. Providing a reassuring beacon: an original and potentially replicable structure of metal and coloured dichroic glass, supporting egalitarian uses that will be co-programmed with local residents of both genders, will create a friendly atmosphere both during the day and at night.
3. Diffusing soft and regular lighting from the ground: tinted concrete slabs studded with phosphorescent stones enhance the daytime and night-time pathways.”
“The Covid-19 pandemic has made the already existing social inequalities even more acute, and particularly those concerning women. The gendered diagnoses of public space carried out by Approche.s! in priority neighbourhoods (Aubervilliers, Clichy-sous-Bois) have objectified this reality. After nightfall, female attendance drops considerably as women bypass the inner neighbourhood and follow only well-lit thoroughfares.
In 2020, Approche.s ! created a daytime signposted trail highlighting the female presence and their cultures of origin in the Émile Dubois / Maladrerie district in Aubervilliers. With FAIRE’s support, this year we want to prototype lighting systems that will accompany women walking after nightfall, in cooperation with the collective of architects Parenthèse.
The light installations will reinterpret the language of the daytime route in three different ways:
1. Acting as a signal: they mark the entrance of the neighbourhood through a luminous carpet of multicultural patterns traced on the ground.
2. Providing a reassuring beacon: an original and potentially replicable structure of metal and coloured dichroic glass, supporting egalitarian uses that will be co-programmed with local residents of both genders, will create a friendly atmosphere both during the day and at night.
3. Diffusing soft and regular lighting from the ground: tinted concrete slabs studded with phosphorescent stones enhance the daytime and night-time pathways.”
THE TEAM
Approche.s !: Laure Gayet, Kelly Ung & Collectif Parenthèses
The Approche.s! collective is led by a multidisciplinary team and supported by an extended think tank focusing on innovative practices in urban planning. It systematically incorporates the issue of gender in a cross-cutting way in all of its approaches, as much through action as through study. It has been reflecting on the place of women in the public space of the Émile Dubois district in Aubervilliers since 2018.
The Parenthèse collective works on different scales of ephemeral architecture, scenography, plastic intervention and object design in order to create playful and evolving situations where other relations to uses and architectural and urban environments are initiated. The collective's practices are part of an experimental approach and use a plurality of media.
Approche.s !: Laure Gayet, Kelly Ung & Collectif Parenthèses
The Approche.s! collective is led by a multidisciplinary team and supported by an extended think tank focusing on innovative practices in urban planning. It systematically incorporates the issue of gender in a cross-cutting way in all of its approaches, as much through action as through study. It has been reflecting on the place of women in the public space of the Émile Dubois district in Aubervilliers since 2018.
The Parenthèse collective works on different scales of ephemeral architecture, scenography, plastic intervention and object design in order to create playful and evolving situations where other relations to uses and architectural and urban environments are initiated. The collective's practices are part of an experimental approach and use a plurality of media.
