The REMEDSPACE project is based in the Citadelle of Marseille, a heritage classified monument built in 1664 above the Old Harbour in the city center.
The project’s ambition was to consider soil pollution in its green spaces supposed to be open to the public as an opportunity to inform and support the citizens, the professionals, and the public entities about nature-based solutions (NBS), with academic, participative and artistic approaches.
Local
France
{Empty}
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
EIT Community New European Bauhaus Call for proposals for Co-Creation of public space through citizen engagement. 2022.
No
Yes
2022-12-31
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): La Citadelle de Marseille Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Mathilde Last name of representative: RUBINSTEIN Gender: Female Nationality: France Function: General coordinator Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: 1 Boulevard Charles Livon Town: Marseille Postal code: 13 007 Country: France Direct Tel:+33 6 12 81 06 45 E-mail:mathilde.rubinstein@lacitadelle.org Website:https://www.lacitadelledemarseille.org/
The REMEDSPACE project is based in the Citadelle of Marseille, a heritage classified monument built in 1664 above the Old Harbour in the city center.
The project’s ambition was to consider soil pollution in its green spaces supposed to be open to the public as an opportunity to inform and support the citizens, the professionals, and the public entities about nature-based solutions (NBS), with academic, participative and artistic approaches.
REMEDSPACE’ main challenges were to :
1- promote and develop bio- and phyto-remediation processes in polluted soils as tools for sustainable pollution management among the public without raising over anxiety, and by suggesting that those soils should be considered as a non-renewable resource and therefore preserved;
2- co design a non-profit organisation dedicated to support NBS economic development with economic actors, and therefore raise the interest of professionals and institutions about NBS dedicated to soils;
3- Help rethinking the use of polluted spaces of La Citadelle de Marseille together with the scientists, artists, citizens and users, and create a community dedicated to La Citadelle de Marseille.
Bio- and phyto-remediation
Interdisciplanary
Participative
Artistic
Sustainable development
Our goal was to address the issue of finding a future to polluted gardens and soils, located in a heritage military fortress in the very center of Marseille where green spaces are very limited. We also realised that soil is a non-renewable resource, and therefore decided to include it in the same preservation approach as what we do for Heritage building. Reason why we took the decision to include the preservation of soils issue in our European Heritage days program to disseminate the information as much as possible.
We turned to scientists involved in nature based solutions to help restaure those spaces, instead of removing soils and turning it into a waste. It gave us confidence and legitimacy to push forward original solutions for our green spaces.
Part of the success of this project has been to share information and processes with citizens : we shared all the scientic input we had, but also the design of the future project for this space with citizens through a large participative approach, in order to engage a maximum of people into the project and foster its long term impact. (20 workshops with universities, schools, onsite workers, neighbours and professionals.)
To change the vision of what is pollution and how human can compose with it, it was important to us to invite an artist to work on the transition of those soils together with the citizen and to produce an artwork with them. It led to the organization of more than 20 additional workshops and a large opening event, including more than 40 workers involved in an inclusion process and dedicated to the renovation of the heritage building and 30 neighbours.
We also realised that NBS for soils represent an economic opportunity as we identified an important need of information, training and consulting around those topic from the economic and institutional world. We aunched a participative process within REMEDSPACE to design an incubator for companies which develop bio and phyto remediation.
First our project is located in a classified heritage monument, with a tremendous view on the Old Harbor, and a great patrimonial value for all its visitors. Moreover, our project was interdisciplinary, mixing a scientific and artistic approach. Indeed, we hosted an artist, Louise Nicollon des Abbayes, in residence for the duration of the project (from september to december). The artistic residence has been put at the center of the project, thought to be a way to enhance collaboration with so different audiences, but also to deal with such a sensitive issue.
As a ceramic artist, she created during this research and creation residency, a piece evoking the fort and its history, using as enamel the materials collected in the polluted gardens of the Citadel. The artist has decided to co-create some part of her work together with the onsite workers in social economy. She presented her work during an exibition on december the 15th. The event was open to the general public, and especially to all those who participated in the project.
The feedback of the artist is clear : workers expressed the fact that they get to know more about the place they work in, and even more about the technics they are experiencing on site, thanks to those artistic workshops.
All participants to the different workshops have expressed that they learned a lot about NBS and that the process was fostering their engagement in the monument’s valorization and the future of the space. Some of them attended almost all the workshops, no matter the theme was.
The citizen workshops also highlighted the importance of this green space for them, especcially because it's part of an heritage classified space. The first scientific input confirming that there are endemic flora and fauna in those acres increased their wish to design a project for the future of the space which would preservce the naturality and beauty of the nature.
The social inclusion approach is present thanks to the workshops with the resident artist, which will be dedicated first to the workers presents on site (100 daily). Those workers represent 46 different nationalites. They are supervised and trained by Acta Vista, a partner and non profit organisation with a social impact project to mobilise fragile workers and train them on restauration of heritage buildings. Those workers are mostly marginalized workers with social, economical and linguistic difficulties, but also the first users of LC and should be considered as actors of their working environment.
Moreover, in terms of accessibility , it was important for us to address the general public in order to make as many people as possible aware of this issue, and that it does not remain only a scientific question. The round table organized on the day of the launch was therefore open to all. In order to share this knowledge with as many people as possible, we have actively communicated on the event online, and we also have filmed all the round tables and scientific presentation to share all this knowledge and experience as much as possible.
4 participative workshops have been organized with volunteers, having for some of them a back ground in sustainibility, inclusion, or ecology, but also individuals who had just raised an interest in the project. Those free workshops where meant to co-design the future content of a non-profit organization dedicated to support its economic development (23/09, 21/10, 25/11, 05/12/2022). The participation of citizens, members of associations, academics and institutional representatives in these workshops allowed us to produce a high quality collaborative work.
The project has been focused on its participative aspect, and therefore has been supported by a large communication plan before the kick off event, during the process and workshops, and is still shared on our website.
Several events have been organised with a thematic approach : economic, artistic approach, design of the future of the green spaces, and invitations have been largely disseminated with our communications tools, and specifically towards the previous participants of any of our event, in ordre to foster cross fertilisation of initiatives.
All the scientific elements and the content of our workshops has been considered as « Open Data » to be collected and disseminated thanks to the videos and our communication tools.
During the business incubator workshops, the approach was collaborative. Workshops were attended by academics, members of associations, farmers, representatives of institutions, citizens, financial engineers ... Thanks to the diversity of participants and their own experience, we produced the first guidelines of a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of NBS for soils, that would match the needs and issues raised by each of them.
During the citizen participative workshops, the objective was to collect the ideas for the long term usage of the polluted gardens (the NBS process takes several years) and we know now that citizens want this space to become a open green space , and that they are very much interested in the phyto and bio remediation process, as it gives hope in nature fonctionnalities and resilience, and people can reconnect with it. A scientific mediation process will be therefore implemented about it. This will raise awareness of the issue of soil pollution and its management through nature-based solutions on a daily basis. On top, neighbours, futures users and current employees of the space have attended 2 workhops in order to think together the future of the fort's polluted gardens (24 and 30th of Nov 22)
REMEDSPACE's project was designed in collaboration with the LPED laboratory (Laboratoire Population Environnement Développement) of Aix-Marseille University, so locally implemented but part of a national and european research community, and with UDDP (Université du Domaine des Possibles), a structure at the crossroads between research and agro ecology, located in the Region Sud and also connected in a national level with all the different actors of agroecology in Europe. They have brought scientific knowledge and undisputable scientific informations about the site. This was essential in order to understand the needs and match the effective needs of an economic further development. Representatives of local associations, interested by the subject, also helped us in this work.
Representatives of regional authorities like the City of Marseille or the Région Sud were also present either during the round table or during the workshops. They expressed their lack of knowledge about NBS solutions for soils and their interest in the issue regarding their own agenda. They were also very much interested in the commitment of a large scale of citizen profils, from individuals to local association, as it echoes with the current evolving definition of participative democraty. indeed it allows us to test within in framed period and projet the effectiveness of those new methodologies, alongside with their own initiative (citizen parliaments, etc.) In particular, the Region Sud took part in the co financing of the kick off event, and provided us with financial engineers from E&Y, themselves providers of the economic development agency of the region, called Rising Sud. Moreover, we have requested the expertise of the departement of artistic creation of the regional authorities to source and select the artist chosen of the residency on site. Above all, Europe funds have allowed us to implement the project with all its dimensions.
We have implemented a 360° vision about pollution management. For that, 4 groups of interest, 4 potential points of view and knowledge fields in the design and the implementation of this project have been identified.
• Scientific community, which has been led by Isabelle Laffont Schwob professeur of Ecology of AMU
• Citizen or neighbourhood, represented by local associations and the community gathered during the Kick off day by the team of La Citadelle de Marseille.
• Business and dedicated non profit organizations community, led by our partner UDDP
• Artistic community, represented by the artist selected through our open call, thank to who we were also able to mobilze the regional authorities on the cultural level of the project.
Each community was systematically invited to attend the event designed for spectific topics. Therefore we have had a cross fertilisation between different communities, fostered by the kick off meeting as we invited all the participants at the same time to share the same initial knowledge.
The scientific representant designed the content of the round tables, and invited its partipants, from historical content to best practices presentations.
The business representant designed the content of the business workshops, co designing with La Citadelle the agenda of each workshops and engaging new participants in each session ; her work was also to report on those workshops and therefore select the global orientation of the debates ;
The artist decided how to work with the workers on site, and how to include them in the final design of her artwork, which has been very important as a participative approach is part of her creative practice.
La Citadelle has monitored all the participative components of the project and organised its dissemination
The project combined a scientific approach with an artistic approach. made it possible to reach a large public without scientific knowledge thanks to the input of an an artistic vision.
About 530 people have been involved in REMEDSPACE betw July and December 2022 (citizens, politicians from different public entities, representants of associations dedicaded to agro ecological issues, students and researchers from various academic laboratories.)
Qualitative impact:
-A new artwork raising interest on soils and pollution management is now exposed in La Citadelle de Marseille and will be part of our mediation program.
-Documentation about the REMEDSPACE project has been collected during the round tables and is now shared with the public through our website and our social networks
-Further resources from the Economic agency of the Region Sud have been allocated to finalise the design the structuration of an economic entity to promote NBS for soils.
-The Region Sud uses REMEDSPACE as a case study and example to develop new policy regardin nature based solutions for soils, and is supporting La Citadelle de Marseille in its project to answer to a Horizon Europe Project.
-Social inclusion approach has also been fulfilled as the different workshops have managed to mix people from different social, educational, geographical background.
Outcomes:
-Raise of interest about NBS among local actors, local public and private funders,
-Upgraded knowledge in NBS solutions among local politicians (Region Sud PACA, Ville de Marseille)
-Dissemination of information to upgrade global knowledge about NBS for Soils : “Agir pour le Vivant” publication presenting La Citadelle de Marseille’s case; seminar in January about Nature in town with La Citadelle de Marseille’s case ; renewed event during the next European Heritage days in 2023.
-Artistic residency: Horizon Europe application together with 2 other European partners including Gradascope another NEB grantee, to organize artistic residencies about NBS for soils.
-Business developpement: The economic agency of the Region Sud has agreed on a technical support to help the business initiative to grow up.
Mainstream actions in the field are mostly academic and not adressed to a large public. Moreover, it remains mostly hidden as the issue of pollution could raise anxiety.
We chose on the contrary to communicate and share the information to everybody and especcially to the people directly concerned by pollution : onsite workers and neighbours first, then public authorities on a second level.
Moreover, our approach was innovative in mixing from the beginning science and art, and we saw the benefits of this practice. We recommend this because it allows to make the link between all the actors, and especially to mediate with the public.
It should be noted that the technique of soil management by phyto- and bio-remediation is still almost unknown including in the EIT communities we connected with thanks to the NEB call : Remedspace has created a new key word in the European framework during the application process as NBS for soils did not exist.
The business approach was also innovative as it highlighted all the different missing business activities which could be developped to increase NBS for soils in France : from a laboratory dedicated to test the quality of soils to the developpement of nursery gardener and farmers to produce enough plants of good quality.
Our efforts were dedicated to the creation of a strong and involved community around the topic, and therefore consider it with a 360° vision and a multilayer approach.
1) 360° vision meant to address all potential points of view regarding pollution management. We identified groups of interest and therefore potential points of view on this project: scientific one, citizen or neighbourhood one, business one, artistic one, non-profit organisations.
During the process we realised we could also have considered the institutional point of view. We did our best to include them throughout the process without dedicating actions to them.
2) Multilayer approach meant different actions to reach at the same time individuals and decision makers, experts and non-experts involved people, aware or not aware public. Actions have been run to reach those different publics.
Large scale actions to reach a maximum of non-expert public and involve citizens: global communication action through online and offline communication tools,
including posters, press releases, website and social medias; presence during a very popular event gathering 8000 people (European Heritage
days).
Middle scale actions to reach a maximum of experts and aware involved citizens: kick off day with a series of round tables to share knowledge and ambitions, video of the round tables made available online, dedicated communication action through online and offline communication tools, but disseminated through large scale tools including posters, press releases, website and social medias, but also specific emailing, individual phone calls, o Open call among the local artistic community to raise their interest for the topic
Small scale actions to involve motivated people and share knowledge and decisions about the project: important number of various workshops, involving citizens, students, professionals...,communication on the capacity to get involved in any of those workshops, to foster cross fertilisation.
Investigations on NBS for pollution management is a sustainable solution to transfer to any other polluted soils, which represent 80 % of the earth. Technics for agroecology are different from technics for urban soils designed to be public gardens, but the vision remains the same, as it considers soil as a non renewable living good, which should be preserved.
Regarding our method, we think that the 360 vision and our multi-layer approach brought a great richness to our project, allowing us to think about a problem as a whole, and thus, to solve it better.
Active participation of an artist in the whole process is also extremely usefull to reach a large audience and help mobilise people about a sensitive issue.
The REMEDSPACE project addresses a global problem: soil pollution due to human activity. It's a global challenge as 80% of the earth is now polluted and it has direct consequences on the human health, and the decline of biodiversity, and more largely on the climate change. And as a non-renewable ressource, we have to treat this problem with nature-based solutions. Bio- and phyto-mediation allows to manage soil pollution without destabilizing the ecosystem.
