1. médialab Sciences Po
  2. Activities
  3. SUNLOOP

SUNLOOP

How do spaces of spontaneous urban nature contribute to the habitability of cities?

The European interdisciplinary research project SUNLOOP aims to describe spontaneous urban nature spaces in terms of their ecological, pedological and climatic qualities, as well as their social and cultural uses. In the context of a zero net artificialization policy, the aim is to highlight the role of wastelands in the city and to affirm non-intervention as a tool for urban planning. The médialab documents the diversity of practices of scientists, residents and policy-makers through ethnographic methods, long-term descriptive activities and the production of experimental research publications.

Research

The sunloop project

The SUNLOOP project (Spontaneous Urban Nature in LOcal nO net land take Policies) was selected as part of the European Biodiversa+ program's call for projects on the theme of “nature-based solutions for biodiversity, human well-being and transformative change”. Focusing on the challenges of spontaneous urban nature in the context of policies to reduce land artificialisation, the SUNLOOP project is financed from 2025 to 2027 by the SNSF (Switzerland), the ANR (France) and the FNRS (Belgium).

Spaces of spontaneous urban nature are unknown and undetermined spaces, in contrast to other formal urban natural spaces such as urban parks. They act in the city as biodiversity refuges and informal spaces hosting multiple social and cultural practices. SUNLOOP aims to understand the current transformations of these spaces - their representations and uses - through the interdisciplinary qualification of their socio-ecological value, particularly in the context of local No Net Land Take (ZAN) policies.

médialab's contribution

As part of SUNLOOP, Robin de Mourat, Clémence Seurat and Thomas Tari are conducting an ethnographic survey of the scientific practices of the consortium's researchers, in order to gather and articulate the different disciplinary perspectives on these spaces of spontaneous urban nature. They are also putting them into dialogue with the lay knowledge of the residents who use them, and the expertise of the political players who oversee their transformation.

The research conducted at médialab is threefold.

Firstly, it involves participant observation sessions with researchers from the consortium to document their practices: climatologists, soil scientists, botanists, entomologists, landscape architects, urban planners and architects.

It is also an opportunity to test experimental ethnography methods based on common experiential description protocols throughout the project. This work is accompanied by interpretation and reflection workshops, allowing the diversity of experiences and concerns regarding spontaneous urban nature spaces to circulate among the parties involved, with a view to developing a shared definition.

Finally, on the basis of the activities described above, the research is geared towards the production of more-than-scientific research publications, conceived as a vector for new encounters and alliances for the consideration of spontaneous urban nature spaces in city planning policies.