In the beginning, it’s an undeniable fact: the ideal city is green [P. 2]. In the end, it will be a utopia made real: the city The living cities magazine becomes nature. Is the Let’s start out by exploring the various aesthetic qualities of our urban landscapes [P. 4], before going nature-city to see - from Paris to Tokyo, and from London to a utopia New York - if the grass really is greener on the other 2020 Winter side [P. 10]. Crossing our urban landscapes as usual, let’s stop for a minute to take in their strange beauty [P. 6]. In a subdued and leafy courtyard, let’s take enjoyment in pure urban wonders. Let’s listen to the silence [P. 14] before gazing at the flight of a titmouse, the ballet of the bees, or the beat of a butterfly’s wings [P. 16]. Let’s leisurely stroll along the footpath, lifting our eyes towards the canopy of large trees that bear witness to an ancient and reassuring presence of greenery in our cities [P. 18]. Here and there, surprising architecture sticks out, where greenery is challenging concrete, where wood is putting an end to its years of dominance. As if the town were becoming more biomimetic, symbiotic… and enjoyable? [P. 20] Will we end up growing gardens right on our building façades? [P. 23] Let’s climb up in the cable car to contemplate the city from up above [P. 24]. From up there, the urban forests are highlighted most clearly [P. 26], when the gardeners out enjoying themselves look minuscule, working in their wild-seeming shared spaces [P. 29]. The race for greenery seems quite invigorating. Once we’ve come back down, let’s enjoy a short walk to imagine how, here and there, the city will become nature. We’ll meet you there. Through our “Qualité de villes” collection, we aim to offer you a purposefully open approach to the city. We invite you to choose what inspires you from among the ideas, experiences, observations, and meetings that we tackle in each issue. We will be giving the floor to all kinds of expertise on cities. Reading the pages of this magazine, you will find everything that makes cities what they are. Each issue will have a main theme that we approach through a variety of angles and formats. We want everyone to think about, discuss, and thoroughly examine the perpetually moving entity that is the city; an entity that builds us as much as we build it. The living cities magazine ratpgroup.com @RATPGroup_Terr 1 Editorial Catherine Guillouard, RATP Group Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer While cities are growing at a faster rate, and in a context of climate emergency, what can greenery in the city do? A lot, undoubtedly. “Green lungs” are natural spaces that contribute to addressing the climatic challenges faced by cities. They promote conviviality and quality of life and health, and are popular with residents. Their presence has become an integral part in a city’s appeal. So then, is the “nature-city” a utopia or a future within our grasp? As partner of smart and sustainable cities, RATP Group is convinced that bringing nature back to the hearts of neighbourhoods will drive progress for everyone. For an operator like us, visualising the nature- city first of all entails addressing the challenges of sustainable mobility. It is first and foremost about removing carbon from public transport to let the city breathe, while working, such as in Paris and London, towards transforming bus depots to make electric or “To become biogas-powered bus fleets available to residents. It means combining our real estate projects, industrial buildings, and urban agriculture with, for example, what attractive again, will be the largest green roof in Paris at the Vaugirard Workshops. It also means responding to city dwellers’ expectations by contributing to the creation of cool areas by opening up shared gardens. Finally, it means cities have to continue innovating to offer new means of clean and shared transport, in addition to traditional ones, to combat to be liveable individual car use. A perpetually moving entity and a polymorphous space, the city is what we make of it. It’s up to all and sustainable.” of us to visualise it, to think about it together, to make it more easily liveable in this digital age, but also more Reinventing nature’s role in cities means sustainable. That’s the goal of this first issue of “Qualité increasing the appeal of cities and providing de villes – The living cities magazine”, which I encourage solutions to the climatic and demographic you to explore. challenges that they’re facing. 2 Qualité de villes #1 — Winter 2020 — RATP Group 3 Wandering Green stations Whether already existing or yet to be built, transport infrastructure is now considered in connection with nature. Preconfiguring a new generation of bus stations, RATP has entrusted the Château de Vincennes eco-station project to the architectural firm Projectiles and to Emma Blanc, a landscape architect. Its light and transparent structure will highlight the nearby Bois 3_ de Vincennes, while the Is the city just concrete? Less and less. From flagstones on the platforms Milan 1 to Montreal 2 by way of Angers 3, nature will allow wild grasses to once again belongs in the city. It’s spilling out spread, in continuity with of the parks to flourish in the cracks, on the the forested paths. Metro and RER stations are also roofs, or in the streets. Whether cultivated or going green, such as the wild, it is protected, celebrated, and yearned Jaurès station, whose pillars for everywhere and like never before by city and roofs have been fitted dwellers, who recognise its many virtues. by Jardins de Babylone. Calming, pleasant, healthy: greenery is making a comeback! And it benefits our cities. What could be better than something that encourages biodiversity, lowers the temperature and level of pollution, and gives some colour back to our daily lives? Greenery 100,000 trees are going to be planted over six years in Angers, particularly to establish greenery along the edges of the new tram lines operated by RATP Dev. ! 2_ 1_ 4 Qualité de villes #1 — Winter 2020 — RATP Group 5 Wandering More than 1,700 trees planted over the next three years: the return of greenery is announced in Marseille. It is also driven by the “Visa vert” (green visa), a gardening licence given to residents. 1_ Licence to plant greenery More and more cities are trusting citizens themselves to resurrect gardens and crops in the heart of their neighbourhoods. In Paris, the “licence to plant greenery” offers a clear framework for reconquering swathes of public space. In Tours, “À fleur de trottoir” (blooming on the footpath) involves residents and park and garden officials. In Marseille, 1 “Visa vert” allows individuals to temporarily occupy public space for free. Its popularity is huge: over 600 licences have been given out in Paris, with 1,500 requested per year in Bordeaux. And with good reason: quality of life, conviviality, ecological balance, etc. It’s a win-win situation. © Sandrine Estrade Boulet 2009 47,795 ballots were cast in 2016 during a citizen consultation of RATP users. Among the ideas chosen: planting greenery in stations, like here at Denfert-Rochereau. 6 Qualité de villes #1 — Winter 2020 — RATP Group 7 Wandering 0% herbicides The choice of eco-grazing, particularly for the maintenance of RER banks, allows us to forego the use of chemical weed killer, 10% banned as of now, and to This is the proportion of its territory enhance the biodiversity that Singapore has decided to dedicate of the spaces maintained. to green spaces. Today, it is the greenest city in the world. 1_ Fresh ideas A green area is a cool area. In some cities, these precious spaces are a historical legacy, like in Singapore 1: since its creation, the “garden city” dedicates 10% of its territory to green spaces. Today, with their populations growing rapidly, cities are doubling down on ground- breaking initiatives. Thus Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has supported 3_ the project by geographer Daniel Raven-Ellison: 100% natural maintenance acquiring for the British RATP has already opted for capital the accolade of being eco-grazing with the use of the first “national park” sheep and goats to maintain city in the world. In Spain, the banks of the RER B 3. Madrid 2 has been testing Since spring 2019, the an idea by Marc Grañen, a night-time weeding work Spanish landscape architect on the 250 kilometres and artist, for two years. of overhead metro lines Greenery has been fitted in its network, carried out on the roofs of 130 buses in spring and autumn each servicing the two busiest year to assure track stability routes in Madrid. In summer, and limit the risks of fire due they help to lower the to dry vegetation, has been temperature inside the carried out without the use vehicles by 4 °C to 5 °C. of glyphosate herbicides. It is done manually by RATP supplier companies. 20 kg This is the mass of CO2 absorbed every year per square metre of green roof. 2_ 8 Qualité de villes #1 — Winter 2020 — RATP Group 9 Snapshots What is nature’s role in large cities? What are its prospects? Comparative overview. 5 km PARIS LONDON Population 2,190,327 people Population 8,908,081 people Density 20,781 people/km2 Density 5,667 people/km2 Surface area 105 km2 Surface area 1,572 km2 1 km 2,300 hectares 52,400 hectares covered covered with green with green spaces, or spaces, or 17.5% of the 33% of the surface area surface area of Paris of London Green spaces Air quality Green spaces Air quality Average for 2019: Around 700 green roofs Average for 2019: 44 hectares of green in the centre of London, 100,000 walls and roofs (1) 8,400,000 (1) street-lining trees trees, which represents or 17.5 hectares.