What is a time-based urbanism and how is it applied to the EUI Time2Adapt project?

What does a time-based approach to local policies mean?

A time-based approach aims to take into account the question of individual (leisure, family, etc.) and collective (work, travel, schedules, etc.) times to better articulate them in all public policies (culture, sport, mobility, town planning, development, etc...). This approach has been implemented by Time-Offices across Europe and is embedded in Lille Metropole as part of the Territorial Climate-Air-Energy Plan, voted in February 2021. It is identified as a means of mitigating the impact of human activity on the climate and helping the territory adapt to climate change.

A time-based policy treats time as a resource and therefore aims at:

• Distributing the time resource evenly and therefore reducing social and environmental inequalities
• Promoting a “right to time” and enable better articulation of life time;
• Optimising resources in a logic of sobriety (energy, land use, etc.)

The methodology of a time policy is embedded in paying attention to uses of the resource by the inhabitants or the institutions and therefore embedding the user perspective…. Something that actually justifies this bigger attention to use.

When did you start working on it at MEL and how do you apply it concretely?

The Time Office was set up in 2015. The office works at the crossroads of departments of MEL and cities – which are part of MEL. For example, it works with the culture or sports department when dealing with the opening hours of libraries (experiment called “Rythme ma bibliothèque”, who took place in 2017) swimming pool (see below) and with cities when dealing with the opening of school yards (see below). It seeks to promote time-based approach but will not subsite itself to the competences and mandates of cities.

The Time Office encourages and includes the temporal dimension both in metropolitan policies and on the metropolitan territory. Its approach is fully experimental. It starts by a complete diagnosis (temporal diagnosis, analysis of practices, observation of the rhythms of the territory), a consultation phase with the stakeholders of a project (users and non-users of a service for example, partners, residents, elected officials, etc.) then is followed by the concrete experimentation. This experimental approach allows solutions to be tested, evaluated and developed to possibly deploy them if there are benefits.

Here are several examples of the ways the policy has been implemented.

Identifying the rhythms of the territory

The Time Office developed a temporal reading of the territory, i.e. it identified the rhythms of the metropolitan territory to adapt public action and identify priority projects, through 2 tools.

The first one, the temporal diagnosis of the territory assesses the ways different areas of the metropole/city are used at various times of day and year, helping the local authority optimize resources and services accordingly.

The second one, the temporal profile of the territory, identifies the main rhythms which characterise the territory and make it unique.

Reducing CO2 emissions by spreading trips out during peak hours or smoothing out traffic peaks by spreading out daily trips

This approach represents an interesting lever for acting on travel (40% of the city's greenhouse gas emissions come from road transport), by choosing the daily travels between home and work. Time-based actions refer to uses and organisations and favour lightweight and easy-to-implement solutions, rather than new infrastructures. Thus, for home-work flows, several temporal levers are activated to limit travel and reduce or avoid urban congestion (on the roads or in the public transports) during peak hours:

• Mobility management to avoid solo driving: carpooling, promotion and provision of active travel modes, promotion of transport offers, pooling of resources (parking, fleet of vehicles/bikes/scooters).
• Reducing distances and travel needs by offering nearby service solutions: concierge services, catering, company crèches, sharing of children's driving.
• Actions on the organization of work (changes in work, digital): start and end work at different times to avoid overcrowding on roads and public transit,  or reviewing working hours schedules to reduce rush-hour traffic; development of teleworking (total or partial at home or in third locations). (NB: this policy was launched before the covid-19 pandemic.

Raising awareness on the time-based approach

One of the pillars of the Time Office is also to make its actions understood and to promote its results. In order to raise awareness among the population and professionals about the time-based approach, the MEL has organised several events dedicated to time:

• “What if we Meddled about the time?” to present temporal policies
• “ What if we Meddled about the night?”  to question the night and the adaptation of public policies to this particular time of the day
• “What if we Meddled about the summer?”, to question summer and the adaptation of public policies to this particular season, a temporal and climatic marker of the territory.
• “It’s time, let’s go beyond our borders!”: the national conference on time-based policies organised for the first time in Lille focused on the connection between the notions of “time” and “border” (state, social, psychological, etc.)
• “Time is running out, let’s adapt our rhythms! »: an annual meeting of stakeholders in time-based approaches, a time to reflect on the interaction between rhythms of life and climate change.

What role does this approach have in Time2Adapt?

As a starting point, in the next months, Time2Adapt will finalise a diagnosis to understand what the needs of MEL residents are regarding cool islands in six neighbourhoods of Lille and  Loos and to identify the already existing resources which could address this need.

MEL will also work on the identification of local structures and stakeholders throughout the project to make sure “time consumers” (inhabitants) are involved from diagnosis to co-conception of the actions that will be implemented.

Optimising the usage of existing services by adjusting their opening hours

The time-based approach seeks to optimise the opening times and days of equipment while ensuring not to desynchronise the rhythms of employees. The objective is to intensify the existing uses of certain spaces for the benefit of users, in view of increasingly hot summers.

MEL already tested a project to optimise the opening hours of libraries with “Rythm my library” project initiated in 2016, and this in close connection with voluntary municipalities.

In Time2Adapt, the project will further work on optimising the opening hours of public equipments which offer a good potential of freshness.

Also, the Time Office has been publishing since 2022 a map of cool places in the metropolis. This map notably includes wooded areas accessible to residents, freely accessible drinking water points and even cool buildings such as swimming pools, museums and other types of public equipment, which are climatic refuges and allow metropolitan residents to experience the summer period to the fullest.

In Time2Adapt, this map has already been updated and will be completed by a  participative and collaborative dimension, to enable residents to give their opinions and good tips, and thus take greater ownership of the project In addition, a page centralizing the opening hours of all the swimming pools in the Metropolitan area of Lille was created.

Optimizing existing spaces by diversifying their usage in time

Temporal policies are also intended to (re)question the construction and/or management of public or private facilities in order to optimize their use, make them multifunctional as well as limit land consumption and urban sprawl. This approach refers to the notion of chronotopia, that is to say the simultaneous consideration of the temporal (chronos) and spatial (topos) dimensions. This includes promoting the multiplication of uses of buildings, equipment or spaces depending on the time of day, week and season. Thus, the temporal dimension creates room for manoeuvre on the density and coverage of the territory.

Time2Adapt has already co-designed and co-constructed temporary infrastructure with residents of the Moulins neighbourhood of Lille, at Maison Folie Moulins.

In the next years, Time2Adapt  will develop others such solutions in the gardens of the Palais des Beaux-Arts and in the lawn of les Enfants du Paradis – renovated as part of the project.

As another example: during the summer of 2023, the MEL experimented with the optimisation of outdoor spaces, with “Free courtyard, free garden”, allowing residents to access schoolyards and gardens not usually accessible, in order to enjoy these spaces of nature, games and relaxation, providing with new cool places during hot summer. The MEL supported municipalities wishing to test the diversification of uses and the optimization of their spaces. To do this, it offered engineering support (organization, communication, evaluation) and mediation. 5 spaces were affected: 3 schoolyards and 2 gardens. The opportunity for residents to sit in the shade of large trees, to benefit from benches, vegetable gardens, sports fields, games and to discover pleasant islands of coolness in the event of extreme heat. This experiment invited us to rethink ways of organizing spaces and to share them.

Time2Adapt has already tested the opening of 4 schoolyards in Lille and Loos during the Summer 2024. 3 schoolyards will have been renovated and greened by Summer 2025 and will be open as well to the general public in the Summer.

Is it unique to Lille European Metropolis (MEL)? In which other cities does it exist?

Time-based approach might seem totally new and mind blowing for many cities. Yet, it is not new nor confined to the MEL. Through Tempo Territorial, French public and private stakeholders learn and exchange about their practices, that they implement through Time Offices or as part of other activities.

Through the Local and Regional Governments Time Network, 27 worldwide members learn and exchange as well as diffuse the benefits of a time-based approach. It puts forward the advantages of such an approach as well as a Local And Regional Time Agenda for all interested city. The network also celebrates its members through a World Capital of Time Policies Award.

What is the transfer potential of such an approach?

MEL spreads the temporal approach in public action and private initiatives, through partnerships with municipalities or voluntary companies, participation in events or their organization, or even the above-mentioned membership of the MEL in the Tempo Territorial network or the signing of the Barcelona International Declaration for the Right to Time.

The publications and handbooks available on the Local and Regional Governments Time Network’s website can help all those wishing to embark on the journey of time-based approach.

Within Time2Adapt, MEL will translate its experience in a draft toolbox, designed by the end of 2025. It will, in particular share:

• The methodology of identification of underused spaces and spaces with potential for being climate shelters.
• the organisational and HR methodology of how to adapt services to extreme heat waves (opening of cool places)

The learnings and experiences will be shared with a target of 35 volunteers from the 95 cities of MEL, which will carry out their own experimentations in Summer 2026.

In parallel, Time2Adapt also works to transferring its innovation as it goes with 3 transnational partners: Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (Spain), Middelburg (Netherlands) and Dresden (Germany).

The potential for transfer is high as the different types of experiments will be tested at different city-scales and within different context and density. The toolbox will be finalised and shared publicly at the end of the project, in 2027.