IVM, laboratory of urban monilities

Launched by PSA Peugeot Citröen in June 2000, the Institut pour la ville en mouvement [City on the Move] seeks to contribute to the emergence of innovative solutions for urban mobilities. It brings together representatives of the corporate and academic world, researchers and practitioners from the social, cultural and voluntary sectors, together with municipalities, to work on joint action-research projects. IVM seeks to test concrete solutions, to promote international comparisons and to identify the most original approaches to urban planning and architecture. In Asia, America and Europe, it mobilises experts and expertise from multiple disciplines, disseminates knowledge and raises public awareness of the challenge that mobilities present for the societies of today.

At IVM, ideas take form and reach a wide public. The Institute runs several initiatives to promote aid and develop urban mobility. In every case, IVM’s pursues the same priorities: to understand the needs and the issues, to bring together the relevant stakeholders, to propose and test innovative solutions on subjects such as mobility and social integration, teenage mobility, mobility for the blind and partially sighted, employee mobility, the connections between rental and ownership, the role of Cleantech in mobility in tackling climate change, mobility and services... Since 2009, it has been running a monthly programme of public hearings on “Climate Change, Cleantech and Urban Mobility”, headed by a group of European experts. In this original approach, specialists from different disciplines (academics, businesses, local authorities, specialists on the environment, on innovation, new technology, public policy, economists...) engage in a sequence of public debates, in a real-time exploration of current developments.
Mobilities are more than ever at the core of city life and urban function. Junctions, bus stops, stations, streets, bridges… the design and organisation of these places is now a major factor in the quality of urban life. Allowing for different speeds, the use of different methods of transportation to match different needs and purposes, all within a shared space, and promoting sustainable mobilities, are challenges that face every city in the world. IVM has created two exhibitions, in five languages and four versions, which are touring throughout the world: “Architecture on the move! Cities and mobility” – using examples of buildings and urban schemes on every continent, how to help improve mobility by influencing the architectural quality of the places of movement, from car parks to stations, bridges to walkways, bus stops to metro stations...
“The street belongs to all of us!” explores the streets of the world’s cities through an audiovisual installation, personal narratives, illustrations and explorations, architectural and urban design projects, and more than a hundred photographs from the archives of the big international press agencies, to debate and imagine new ways of developing and managing the streets.
A third exhibition – “Dream Cities, Sustainable Cities?” was jointly produced in 2009 with the EDF Diversiterre Foundation. Presented for the first time in Paris from October 22, 2009 to March 7, 2010, its aim is to raise awareness amongst the public – beyond experts and specialists – of the major challenges facing urbanism today and the need for new compromises. Immersing visitors in the dreams and counter-dreams of city dwellers, the exhibition explores the contradictory desire for space and for centrality. Going to the heart of the public debate and our concerns as citizens, the exhibition offers the keys to an understanding of the challenges of tomorrow’s cities.

Mobility is not simply a right and does not depend on technical resources alone. It is also a culture, references, a system of codes… Moving around the city is not just about being able, but also “knowing how” and taking pleasure in meeting, in avoiding, in respecting, in taking advantage of human interchange while maintaining privacy. IVM thus melds approaches and cultures in its research and its field initiatives. A new way of doing things which promotes encounters and raises awareness, notably through the organisation of public events and the dissemination of information (brochures, website, competitions, etc). These events contribute to ideas on new forms of mobility and encourage our societies to begin the process of thinking about movement in the city, thereby establishing the potential for new solutions. At the Shanghai Expo 2010, IVM will be organising the presentation of the results of the “Better Mobility, Better life” Prize for Innovation in Mobility Services, launched in China in 2009.

Because mobility has become a global issue in virtually every respect (economic crisis, climate change, etc.), IVM has opened offices in China (Shanghai) and Latin America (Buenos Aires). They act both as mobility resource centres in these emerging locations, and also as action centres where experiments and projects with relevance to local issues can be conducted. They each have their own academic chair that attracts the best specialists from different disciplines – economists, sociologists, transport engineers, etc. In 2009, scientific colloquies were organised in partnership with some of Latin America’s most prestigious universities in Rio de Janeiro, Bogota and Santiago de Chile. Cultural events were held to accompany the themes of the “The street belongs to all of us!” exhibition, staged in Spanish and Brazilian versions in each of these cities. Two books – “Bogota, ciudad en movimiento” and “Ganar la calle-Compartir sin dividir la ciudad latinoamericana” – have been published following these events. Talks are also underway with the city of Buenos Aires to implement the “Readable City” project, based on detailed specifications for the information needs of the city’s public transport network.

Alongside these actions, IVM runs regular theme-based seminars and forums in France and abroad: “Research issues in China and abroad”, “Day-to-day mobilities and social exclusion”, “Making the city with flows?”, “Hiring-renting-services”. All these provide a special space for debate between people from different spheres: social action, research, business, politics. Within the framework of the IVM Chair, headed by Jean-Pierre Orfeuil, Professor at the Paris Institute of Urban Design, academics from all disciplines and from all over the world meet regularly to discuss specific themes. These exchanges have led to numerous publications. On each occasion, there is open public access to all resources on the IVM website.

The Institute establishes its working objectives with its Scientific and Strategy Council, then chooses its terrain of experiment and action. It convinces partners to contribute to the implementation process and sets up independent teams led by project heads recruited from different professional spheres. IVM programs apply three criteria in choosing its themes. Relevance: the issue must be significant and involve partners. Excellence: the teams are made up of acknowledged experts in the field. Difference: in its research and experiments, the Institute does not replace agencies already working the field but adopts a distinctive or innovative sphere of action.

Another peculiarity of IVM is its Scientific and Strategy Committee. An original forum for reflection, a source of inspiration for the Institute’s projects, it is also the scientific and ethical guarantor of the IVM’s initiatives. Chaired by François Ascher, this think-tank on the city on the move comprises some twenty French and international figures from a range of professional horizons but all with direct insight into and experience of the realities of urban life.

Original research programs, innovative field operations, transnational projects, public-private partnerships and multidisciplinary teams… IVM continues to ask questions and to commit itself without taboos or barriers to the goal of mobility becoming a right and movement a pleasure.