V
Vivien Boiron
My practice of urban climbing coincided with an increased appreciation for the urban environment. This affinity led me to want to share this perspective of altitude on the city throughout my studies.
For this DNSEP project, titled “On Top City,” I illustrated a utopia in which all the rooftops of buildings in peripheral popular neighborhoods would be used as ordinary public spaces.
These new developments would allow for the enhancement of existing buildings by increasing energy performance: thermal inertia through greening, solar energy exploitation, rainwater harvesting, etc.
They would offer a better living environment for the residents of the buildings concerned by increasing the number of spaces dedicated to well-being: green spaces, sports equipment, access to views, etc. This would also benefit the inhabitants of the entire city with the organization of occasional events: film screenings, landscape readings with a guide, high-altitude sports sessions, shows, rooftop walks, etc.
This would promote the opening up of these areas often referred to as “dormitory towns,” by adding a poetic dimension derived from non-economic functionality to their purely functional nature (“housing”). The relationship to points of interest in the city, usually concentrated in its center, would be rethought with the addition of these new places of interest on the outskirts of the city.
