Designing sustainable and beautiful urban solutions, all together, is at the core of the Time2Adapt project. That makes it a truly New European Bauhaus project! Its most striking example? Four artistic installations which will be built in three areas of Lille and Loos.
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Why the New European Bauhaus?
Time2Adapt uses time-based urbanism as a lever to address the need for cool places when urban temperatures reach uncomfortable and life-threatening highs. It is part of part of the first call of the European Urban Initiative (EUI) programme under the theme of New European Bauhaus.
The New European Bauhaus (NEB) is a flagship initiative of the European Commission, active since 2020. It is broken down into specific calls for projects, including technical assistance call (e.g. for Horizon Programme) themes, festivals, various communication activities. At its core are three values and three principles: the values (aesthetics, sustainability, inclusion) correspond the areas for creation and experimentation, whereas the principles (participatory process, multi-level engagement and transdisciplinary approach) describe the process through which a project should operate and work to achieve the highest level of ambition in the three values. Each of those can be implemented through different levels of ambitions, detailed in the New European Bauhaustoolbox.
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NEB Values and principles
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4 NEB-based artistic installations
One of the actions of the Time2Adapt project is to produce an artistic signage meaningful to the population to shed light to some of the cool islands of the cities of Lille and Loos, inviting residents to make the most out of them. Three locations have been selected for this purpose: Louise Michel Street, in the Moulins district of Lille, Pointe Carolus, in the Bois Blanc district of Lille and Parc Danel in Loos. Each of the locations will benefit from an installation, and all of them will be signposted by a common artistic language. More details of this process were accounted for in another article.
The four installations are:
La Porte (The door), by Julien Kieffer, at Louise Michel Street;
Le Cétafleuve, by Baptiste César, for Point Carolus;
Detroit, by Nicolas Tourte, for Parc Danel; and,
Racines (Roots), by Clémentine Carsberg, as a signposting to the three other installations.
Let’s deep dive into the ways the partners relate to the New European Bauhaus and, in particular, the way these artistic installations exemplify perfectly the NEB framework of the Time2Adapt project
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NEB Value 1 – Sustainable
Time2Adapt is based on the principle that there is climate change and that there is a need to adjust practices and lifestyles. Sustainability in the project is seen with the adaptation angle. Climate change is happening: how do we prepare for it? how do we adapt spaces for the most vulnerable people to be less affected by heat? For the partners, sustainable development goes well beyond the issue of green: it also relates to health, solidarity, economic efficiency, participation and partnership. The Time2Adapt project meets all these criteria. It is also definitely at the core of the project to make human activities less harmful to ecosystem balances and to increase the resilience of cities. Concretely, in the project, sourcing will be as much as possible local: economical and respectful of resources, with recycled materials, avoiding plastic.
Detroit (Nicolas Tourte)
Global warming indicates a rupture in the experienced linearity of time. It accelerates natural phenomena that, before human pressure on ecosystems, were less sudden and less regular. This acceleration of natural disasters is directly impacting the cosmic temporality of our planet.
Detroit attempts to embody this temporal distortion. Its twisting architecture invites us to question our perception of time, where the seasons are disrupted. Moreover, the title Detroit evokes a passage between two spaces, a critical point, a threshold to be crossed. The twisting of the structure gives the illusion that the passage is narrowing or widening, as if time itself were stretching or accelerating. The openwork structure also creates a play of shadows on the ground, which, depending on the time of day, will be more or less structured, symbolising the fluctuation of time and climate.
The art installations are there as totems of cool spaces in the neighbourhood. they are used as participation tools but also as powerful communication tools : making the neighbourhood’s most important green spaces more easily identifiable giving more readability/visibility of space
For the partners, the contribution made by the artists in the project, to make the solutions "beautiful" is key. They have done so with strong involvement of the inhabitants, considering the specificities and identities of the targeted neighbourhoods.This is also a criterion for the development of the furniture present in the public space, beautiful, useful and pleasant. It also proposes beautiful and useful places and devices, in particular green schoolyards "places designed to be beautiful and pleasant for all" (presented in another article).
La Porte (Julien Kieffer)
This proposal directly echoes the preparatory drawings made by the residents on the windows of the equatorial greenhouse covered in Meulon white. It plays on a figurative level by transposing the residents' drawings through a cluster of objects that refers to the model boards, as if another work could be created. We can also see a neighbourhood starter pack. A tit birdhouse is integrated into the composition. The green directly references the parks and gardens as well as street furniture. The whole refers to childhood, construction games and the resulting imagination. The division of the figurative elements refers to the mashrabiyas and allows for a projection of shadows on the ground. The work integrates the already existing ground fresco into its aesthetic device.
La Porte is composed of curved steel tubes and steel sheets, with powder coating.
This notion is at the heart of the Time2Adapt solutions by making it possible to meet the needs of all without distinction. The activities have been defined in priority areas, targeting vulnerable audiences. The solutions are free (no financial barrier) and allow those who are suffocating (lack of green space, unsanitary housing) to find freshness.
It is important to understand though that targeting everyone is not the same as ensuring that everyone is involved.When talking about specific groups (young people, seniors, disabled, women, etc.), the partners explain their work with the various field associations to consider solutions that are useful to all.
Cétafleuve (Baptiste César)
The Cétafleuve features a boat hull turned upside down and cut into eight parts to form a symbolic passage between the tip of Bois-Blanc and the Citadelle Park in Lille. This portal, inspired by both the body of the cetacean and the flow of the river (hence its hybrid name), evokes a mythical stranded animal that would have merged with the urban landscape. Each hull section, positioned symmetrically opposite each other, creates an immersive opening that passersby can pass through. The interior of the shapes is filled in and then painted in the colours of a rainbow.
Cétafleuve is composed of structural timber, curved wood, acrylic resin, and paint.
There is a strong link between inclusivity and participation. In the project, strong attention is paidto user participation, from the diagnosis of uses to the definition of actions and developments to be proposed at 3 levels:
Diagnose: to identify the needs of the territory;
Co-design and co-create: to produce joint urban infrastructure and artistic installations; and,
Evaluate: to assess what should be repeated, or not, or improved.
In particular, during the month of March 2025, the four artists were in residence in the three selected neighbourhoods. They walked the streets, photographed the spaces, waited at traffic lights, walked along the sidewalks, waited on a bench, mapped traffic lanes, took public transportation, discussed the neighbourhood with passersby, chatted about the future with children, discovered the history of the neighbourhood, listened to the endless anecdotes of elders, drew plant roots with schoolchildren, made drawing pens with parents, organised walks with students, led co-design workshops with families, imagined a city where life is good in summer, sought out the coolest spaces, anticipated the arrival of July with neighbours, drew the outlines of a boat with several hands, traced the paths that lead to cool spaces, put everyone's desires into perspective, and proposed works for tomorrow. In particular:
For La Porte (The door), Julien Kieffer, combined the heritage knowledge he had gathered from the neighbourhood;
For le Cétafleuve, Baptiste César, who identified an abandoned boat shell in a former factory of the neighbourhood, elaborated the concept with the residents;
For Detroit, Nicolas Tourte, who used to working with circular approaches, tested several models with residents, in order to provide a feeling of flow in the park;
For Racines (Roots), Clémentine Carsberg sought to show up the life underneath the macadam based on resident’s drawings with reed pens and walnut ink.
Racines (Clémentine Carsberg)
Plants and trees highlight the presence of our "natural" guides and air conditioners in this global warming issue. This piece makes trees visible. It underlines what interests us: the trees and plants that primarily contribute to coolness, that seek water and nutrients with their roots, but whose roots we are rarely aware of. Indeed, it's not easy to notice them in their daily presence.
By tracing their roots, we shed light onto the root systems of trees that grow toward the works and/or so-called "cool" areas. We seek to dind the species present and gather information on the shape of their roots, or have the soil scanned. Make what already exists legible and visible, and let yourself be drawn into their flow.
The governance structure of the project (COPIL,COTECH) but also the fact that the project is supported by the Lille European Metropolis (MEL) and implemented by cities ensures multi-level governance. In addition to the project partners, other main key stakeholders are engaged in the project: local NGOs, social and cultural centres from partner cities and other MEL cities selected in the call for project for the second phase; local authorities beyond Lille and Loos for the second phase; staff, social partners and unions taking part in the expected transformations of places and buildings; the wider artistic community, and European and national networks (Eurocities, Tempo territorial, Local and Regional Governments Time Network) for communication and dissemination.
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NEB 3 – Transdisciplinary approach
Because it is a ‘sustainable development’ project, the transdisciplinary approach of Time2Adapt is necessary, hence the importance of having a multitude of participants with diverse skills around the table: within each partner organisation as well as throughout the partnership. For example, the mandates of some of partners (e.g. the person involved in the city of Loos, which has a rather small administration – smaller than that of city of Lille) allow them to touch on ‘almost all areas related to the project’. For others, collaboration between departments/units of their organisations requires new ways of working, based on projects.
Overall, it is crucial that each partner needs to understand each other's missions and roles. Indeed, the diversity of each contributes to complementary fields of expertise.
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Is the New European Bauhaus for all?
The New European Bauhaus is becoming increasingly recognised and used:
This is a concept fully embraced to think new, try new approaches;
For most partners, it forces to change their mindsets;
It is a trigger for change, forces to adopt new lenses and solutions; and,
It covers a wide array of stakeholders’’ realities, from public policy and stakeholders, to politicians, from researchers to activities, from architects, urban planners and designers to artists. Not to forget the crucial focus of (varied and multiple) residents and users of cities.
Beyond a new vocabulary and frame, the New European Bauhaus brings together old and new concepts. Its principles and values have been used in sustainable urban development approaches for decades now: yet, the added value of this initiative is to bring it all together and make it visible.
The partners of the Time2Adapt project showed that beyond a frame that could appear too strict or theoretical, the New European Bauhaus’ values and concepts are a major framework for meaningful urban innovation.
About this resource
Author
Marcelline Bonneau
Project
Time-based Innovative Measures and Experimentations to ADAPT our cities to climate change
The European Urban Initiative is an essential tool of the urban dimension of Cohesion Policy for the 2021-2027 programming period. The initiative established by the European Union supports cities of all sizes, to build their capacity and knowledge, to support innovation and develop transferable and scalable innovative solutions to urban challenges of EU relevance.