“When it is hot, I like to eat an ice-cream”

Papers and pens. Pictures and drawings. Meudon white on the windows. Reed pens. Walnut ink. Artists involved in Time2Adapt have used craft and local products to raise the creativity of users of public spaces to co-design the artistic installations that will shed light to some of the cool islands of the cities of Lille and Loos, inviting locals to make the most out of them

What do you do when you are hot? Where do you go to? What and where would you like to go to? Can you tell us more about the area in which you live?  These are some of the questions which have guided 4 artists in co-designing Time2Adapt artistic installations with users of public space through their concertation residences during the month of March 2025.

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Three emblematic yet poorly used sites

The citizen and physical diagnoses identified sites which are rarely used or known by residents and users of the neighbourhoods though they could provide some cool shelters during hot summers. Based on it, the Time2Adapt partners chose three sites of the cities of Loos and Lille that could be emphasised by artistic installations:

• The Louise Michel street, in the Moulins district of Lille, is the link between the Porte de Douai metro station and the Jardin des plantes. The artistic installation will invite residents and visitors to move away from the mineral atmosphere, over the bridge across the highway to the fresh and calm, restful and peaceful Jardin des Plantes.
• The artistic installation at Pointe Carolus, in the Bois Blanc district of Lille, will invite the residents and users to cross a first bridge towards the Colysée Community Centre – with many local activities, event and workshops – and then a second one towards the Parc de la Citadelle, the largest green area of Lille.
• The Parc Danel in Loos is usually crossed by locals to go from the train stations to a hypermarket. The artistic installation will invite them to spend time and enjoy its freshness.

These artistic installations will reflect local history and culture while inviting residents and users of the areas to benefit from the freshness of the sites during heatwaves.

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Four complementary artistic approaches

The four artists working on the artistic installations have various and complementary profiles  benefitting their two types of tasks.

The first task will be to create artistic installations in “volume”. Julien Kieffer is used to be working in a participatory way and has been highly involved in projects for local authorities. Baptiste César uses recycled and locally sourced materials for in-situ creations. Nicolas Tourte focuses on the question of cycle and the ‘living’ while questioning the place of human in the universe. All three will co-design the installations respectively for the Louise Michel Street, the Pointe Carolus and Parc Danel.

The second task will be to design artistic painting/frescoes. Clémentine Carsberg uses local and natural material to create targeted projects and is experienced in street-level visualisation: she will be responsible for creating a common artistic signposting for the three sites.

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A realm of co-design activities

The co-design programme used by the artists combined group and individual activities, with a general audience as well as with specific target groups:

• Random encounters, for example at the greenhouse of Jardin des Plantes or at the Community centre Colysée, provided a set for exploration and informal discussions with adults and children, some appearing there by chance, others with a specific plan. Some triggers for adults and children to enter the spaces were curiosity, the wish to draw and be creative, or concerns about climate. The artists improvised their activities based on the participants.
• Walks throughout neighbourhoods provided the ground for easy talks, together with the discovery of the areas by the artists or by the users themselves. A co-learning process came to life.
• Workshops with specific target groups such as children or elderly people were key to understand the past and future of the areas. What’s the story behind the city gates? What was the industrial life like? How did it smell, feel? What were the sounds of the daily life? These ‘chitchatting workshops’ provided lots of local anecdotes to feed into the installations.
• Stands during other events and festivals e.g. day of children, or at mediathèque, attracted attention to the climate issue and collected ideas, for example through drawing and doodling.
• Individual strolling and residences were the individual paths for the artists to get familiar with the neighbourhoods, their local life, shops, etc.

The total of 31 activities was organised with local relays which provided participants – for a total of 500 - or locations, and knowledge about the areas. Theb methodology was shaped and coordinated by the Time2Adapt partner GroupeA – Cooperative Culturelle. The participants were able to imagine the future artistic installations. These have supported the artists in deciding of their shapes, colours, materials, texture. Other activities also put the artists in contact with local suppliers of local materials.

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The artistic concoction

So, how can an artistic integrate all this knowledge to create an adequate artistic installation? First of all, it is clear that the installations are bound by some strict specifications related to its height, weight, the impossibility to hide in it as well as to climb it, or to the area for circulating around it (street accessibility). Once this is settled, each of the artists has their own approach. They had to adjust their vocabulary to create an artefact corresponding to the interest, worries and wishes of the participants. They had to be pedagogical at the same time as restraining themselves from influencing the process.

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What came out of all of it?

Ice houses. Blue colour. Trees. Freshness. Water. Greens. These are some of the representations of freshness.

Spinning, salt, flour, linen mills. Metallurgical activities (foundry, metalwork, blacksmithing). Bells.  Courtyard houses. Wind making the steam locomotive whistle sound implying mothers to hurrying their children home from school (weather is going to change). These are some the memories of the neighbourhood.

Drawings. Mindmapping. Brainsomting. Wordclouds. These are some of the immediate outcomes of the exchanges.

Wood, wheat straw, cork, plants. These are some of the natural and local materials that could be used.

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Side effects

Beyond the direct inputs provided by locals to the artists, the activities were also the opportunity to raise awareness about climate issues: participants could question themselves about what they already liked or needed, about existing or missing opportunities. The activities showcased existing green areas. This reflection will be resumed during the launch of the installations to which residents will be invited.

Involving the residents and users in the co-design of the installation also sought to ensure that these people will embrace the installations, respect and cherish them, but also be proud of them. This would in turn, in addition to embellish the neighbourhoods, also diminish the chances of degradation.

Artistic installations to be delivered

The concertation residences will lead to the presentation of 3 sketches per artist to the two cities of Lille and Loos.  A proposed selection will be made and readjusted depending on the technical constraints and in line with local life as well as on the available material and contractor to build them. The aim is to launch them at the beginning of the summer.

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“When it is hot, I like to eat an ice-cream”

The ambition at this stage is that the artistic installation will represent the interest and creativity of the residents as well as those of artists. They will not create ice-cream trucks (nor ice-cube houses). Yet, it is hoped that many children (and adults!) will come and enjoy an ice-cream in the three designated fresh sites: Jardin des Plantes, Parc de la Citadelle, and Parc Danel.

An approach embedded in the NEB values

The co-design of artistic installations fits perfectly with the New European Bauhaus values

• Sustainable: the material sourcing is as much as possible local: economical and respectful of resources, with recycled materials, avoiding plastic, with the participation of artisans and companies from the metropolis already engaged in internal policies at least of CSR, or even particularly already in touch with the economic and ecological transitions necessary for the balances between non-human and human.
• Beautiful: 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 neighborhoods concerned.
• Together: co-design with residents has been key to the whole process

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Thank you!

I would like to thank all the partners who welcomed met me to talk about their experiences with the concertation residences: Hugo Miel, Millie Mahieu, and Leynaêle Le Bivic (Groupe A), as well as Julien Kieffer, Baptiste César, Nicolas Tourte, and Clémentine Carsberg. A special thanks to the participants of the workshops: Meï and her mother, Aurore and her dad, Lina and her dad.