ULI France co-organised a round table with Saguez & Partners on the topic of mixed use. The speakers shared some key elements to help us understand mixed use. This practice is very resonant with our society facing a number of disruptions. Namely, the public health crisis triggered by Covid, which has cut off social connections and favoured isolation, not forgetting the economic and ecological crisis. Virginie Parisot suggested that perhaps it is about time we redefine the values we advocate and focus on community and sharing when we design our living spaces.

ULI France co-organised a round table with Saguez & Partners on the topic of mixed use.
We were given some key elements to help us understand mixed use as a practice very resonant with our society while it faces several disruptions. Namely, the public health crisis triggered by Covid, which has cut off social connections and favoured isolation, not forgetting the economic and ecological crisis. Virginie Parisot suggested that perhaps it is about time we redefine the values we advocate and focus on community and sharing when we design our living spaces.
We had the chance to hear from a panel of relevant figures from different background (social, urban, financial, design). The contrasting perspectives of the speakers : Olivier Saguez, Virginie Parisot, Lorraine Dieulot, Stéphane Hugon, Armel Ract-Madoux, et Franck Boutté, brought to light some insights about the importance of mixed use.

There seems to be a consensus that mixed use is an undisputable social vector, allowing to preserve city’s and move towards decarbonisation of the sector. Mixing the different purposes of what we build could creative collective experiences ; there, would lie the essence to make more sense of our living spaces and even bring life to some areas that have a function that is too specific.

Several questions were raised with regard to leverage actions on building costs, creating and enhancing territorial cooperation , and the possibility of a code of conduct based on altruism within the built environment.
There remains however a great deal to be done including choosing the scale of mixed use and reversibility of our spaces. We concluded this roundtable on this one note, which perhaps is the motto of numerous ULI members : land development is certainly about designing space sustaining life, but it is also first and foremost about welcoming collective memory.

Insights from the speakers :

• Olivier Saguez, Saguez & Partners, designer-entrepreneur-builder
  ”The ecological crisis requires us to defend even more the usefulness of objects and our choices.”
• Virginie Parisot, Saguez & Partners, strategic globetrotter
  “We are in a situation we have never been before where billions of individuals were locked down. We are talking about social crisis, now it’s time to redefine what belongsto the individual and what’s belong to the community. Mixed use is about community. (…) Social connection is important, people are important, their interactions matter, the experiences we create matter, and we often say that value comes out of the emptiness. Thus it is essential to welcome the emptiness so that experiences can take place within. One point about mixed use, it is the notion of village. Meaning we are no longer merely focused on assets, we are now paying attention to neighbourhood ; what’s been happening before, with and around is important. We are now seeing things on a macro level.”
• Lorraine Dieulot, Saguez & Partners, holisitic designer
  ”Yes there is an emergency on several levels, different scales and one of the first to be concerned is real estate ; there is an urge to implement diversity since it creates more flexibility. (…) The city is craving diversity in order to shape its outlines and gain attractiveness as to not get stuck into a set pattern. Finally we should mention the environmental scale namely the need of bioclimatic synergy within human activities. We need to plan long term evolving strategies promoting the reuse of places to avoid the destruction of something meant to be rebuild right after.”

  Stéphane Hugon, Eranos, “eminent” sociologist
  ”We are in a society based on sharing, but what kind of sharing are we exactly referring to ? Which scale of sharing, collective and social connection are we aiming for ? On a more pragmatic level, as an operator you can ask yourself, what kind of relationship is this particular place allowing ? What should take place here in terms of social relationship ? What tools should we use in order to find the granularity between what’s individual versus universal ? In Occident, we are deprived from these words (…) in Seoul, all the vocabulary of hospitality are way more detailed and embedded and allow to shape things more easily, meaning shaping spaces allowing harmony to take place.”

• Armel Ract-Madoux, Deloitte, “agile” business man
  ”It is clear that today, objects are prone to be more little and more hybrid while relying on new synergies based on energetic, environmental and economic issues. It is interesting to see that everything is being set in motion on the world stage.”
• Franck Boutté, founder and president of Franck Boutté Consultants, and Grand Prix de l’Urbanisme 2022 in France.
  ”The scope of mixed use relies on two guiding principles : the density and the mixed-use at the city’s scale but also at the scale of mixed use objects which have a compaction effect and become essential component to the village and the new ready-made objects. This as a whole contributes to the reimagination of the scale of real estate, of the neighbourhood, of the 15 minute city (…)”