Politique Internationale — Les Fabriques and Cité de la Méditerranée in Marseille, Bahia Blanca in Argentina, Hobart Waterfront in Tasmania… You are the brains behind some major urban-port district design projects all around the globe. In the numerous projects you have been involved in, between land and sea, how do you incorporate roads?
François Kern — Roads immediately conjure up all sorts of images in our minds. We have the major trading routes, the Silk road, the vacation road, the wine road, the route des crêtes (mountain ridge road) above the Verdon gorge with its magnificent belvederes, as well as the death road in the Andes, so-called because it is so unstable. For me, roads are also synonymous with the USA, a country where the car reigns supreme, with its scenic byways meandering through landscapes offering incredible views. I think about the road to Memphis, the cinema with its road movies, and even information highways... All these images are bound together by a common thread: the need to link people. Roads provide the vital link required to meet and trade. Ultimately, the road is life itself, because without encounters and exchange, the world descends into war and death. Roads are far more than a feat of engineering, they are a place to live, incorporated into the landscape. They have existed since the dawn of time, even before they took material form. Prehistoric men were already using roads as they travelled between continents. In the desert, you have the impression there are no roads and yet the nomads know them. Birds don’t have any paths marked out but they follow the migration routes that bring them all together in the same place. So roads really do lie at the heart of humanity, providing that vital link and improving our quality of life together.
P. I. — In the transition towards more sustainable and more energy-efficient towns and cities, how do you see the road of tomorrow?
F. K. — The road of the future will be zero carbon and zero noise. There will probably be no oil, either in the materials used to build them or in the methods of transport, which will no longer be dependent on fossil energy. I imagine a road with fewer cars, which will no longer emit harmful gases into the atmosphere. The war in Ukraine, and the ensuing energy crisis, is expected to accelerate this revolution. I also envisage a safer road, because we will drive more slowly and traffic will flow more smoothly. Finally, the road of tomorrow will be one that is shared between cars, trucks, public transport, bicycles, etc. Having said that, a shared world does not mean a separated one, because juxtaposing all the different modes of transport would require roads to be double the width, gobbling up land and creating a nightmare scenario for urban planners. Instead, it is necessary for everyone to intersect, to cross paths, and therein lies the complexity. The general trend is to reduce the use of cars in towns and cities, even to get rid of them all together, in favor of lighter alternatives. Ultimately I imagine three modes of travel: the urban mode, for very short distances, within a neighborhood, will be on foot or by bicycle; middle distances out to the suburbs or outlying districts will be covered on motorcycle or by car; bulk transport modes such as the train or airplane will dominate long distance travel. Manufacturers are focusing their efforts on making cars without fossil energy. But have we got our priorities right in continuing to prefer this hyper- individualistic mode of transport? Developing countries have come up with some very interesting semi-collective solutions, such as mini-buses: they operate as shuttles with people getting on and off every couple of hundred meters. Yes, it’s very slow as a mode of transport but it suits urban requirements perfectly. Ultimately, the road of the future will be in praise of slowness.
P. I. — Is this world of soft mobility, without speed, in which the role of the car is reduced, not somewhat idealistic?
F. K. — I’m from Marseille, so I know the strength of our attachment to cars. They say that a man from Marseille without a car isn’t a man at all! The filmmakers got it right: in the 1980s, movies like Taxi championed the car, speed and sportiness. We can’t imagine losing our creature comforts in the way we live. But the fact is that we’re going to have to make some sacrifices. Speed is a major factor in terms of both energy consumption and the number of accidents. The faster we drive, the longer the braking distance. We only have to reduce our speed by 10 km/h to halve the number of accidents. In order to reduce speed and makes the road safer, we can change its design. Road safety initiatives often contrast two images: one a winding road in bad weather, and the other a straight road in the sunshine. People always wrongly think that the first scenario is more dangerous, whereas, in reality, the danger is far greater in the second scenario because drivers lower their guard. Without coming up with a convoluted design solution for roads, it is possible to take measures to prevent cars from progressing freely and gathering speed.
P. I. — Is it possible to come up with innovative surfacing solutions and build the roads of tomorrow by recycling plastic waste, for example?
F. K. — They already exist! Blast furnace residue is being re-used in roads. A lot of unwanted materials are recycled and used in compressed layers beneath roads. We’re also looking into having more tree-lined roads, with more abundant nature absorbing the CO2, so that roads become carbon-negative. Manufacturers are also considering solutions whereby cars get their energy from direct contact with the road, a bit like charging your smartphone by putting it on an induction pad. A whole range of solutions will emerge, which should enable us to restore a degree of balance.
P. I. — While land is scarce, how can we ensure space is shared between roads and everyone else?
F. K. — For years, functional urban planning as set out in the Athens Charter – published in 1933 by Swiss architect Le Corbusier – encouraged the separation of functions. This led to a disconnection and superimposition of levels for cars and pedestrians. But in doing so, detrimental slab effects were created, cutting human beings off from nature and the land they had to live on. In contrast, since the beginning of the 2000s, urban policies have focused on the principles of diversity. But we know that towns and cities are no longer going to extend outwards because the law requires us to build the town on the town, with no land artificialization. The result is an end to the urban sprawl.
P. I. — Essential for opening up a region and enabling its development, roads must at the same time become invisible and be forgotten. How do you respond to these contradictory demands?
F. K. — In the 1970s, one of the access roads to Marseille was via a major highway viaduct above the quays, along the coast. It was a bit like the elevated “Sopraelevata” highway around the port of Genoa. When you drove into the city it was spectacular: you had the impression of arriving by plane. But Euroméditerranée, the public body responsible for coastal development, wanted to get rid of the flyover, judging it to be blot on the city’s landscape. It was demolished and replaced by a tunnel. I would have liked to see the structure saved and turned into an elevated pedestrian walkway with stunning views over the port, much like the High Line in New York, where the former railroad was transformed into an overhead park with spectacular views over Manhattan. The goal is always to incorporate the road into the landscape. A few years ago, we took part in a major competition relating to Marseille’s northern ring road, a project worth €800 million. The objective was to build a highway serving the northern districts, the L2 ring road. We wanted to cover it and spent a long time thinking about how we could stitch together the districts around this scar. We didn’t secure the contract and the winning company did not conduct the surface works that the residents of the neighborhoods concerned so deserved. The blot of the landscape remained as an open air trench. Today it is gradually being covered by others, but it is a slow process.
P. I. — How can we prevent the road being a break, a severing?
F. K. — I see roads as a composition: they should stage the landscape. The route des Alpes road, that runs alongside the Durance river, highlights the town of Sisteron, dominated by its citadel and nestled against a rocky ridge protecting it from the north winds blowing down off the mountains. It’s fabulous. The highway was the brainchild of engineers as well as landscape architects, whose efforts resulted in a structure that highlights a piece of heritage. The road of tomorrow is also just that: no immediate returns but promotion of the heritage contained in the landscape.
P. I. — In your major projects, what solutions do you put in place to facilitate traffic flow, reduce traffic jams and minimize noise pollution?
F. K. — Roads are a vacuum for cars. The wider and more comfortable a road is, the more vehicles it absorbs. A highway is therefore the best way of going from one traffic jam to another. To reduce traffic jams, you have to control speed, which allows traffic to flow more smoothly. But urban planners cannot do it all themselves; you need legislation to reduce speed. By reducing the speed limit from 110 to 90 kilometers/hour between Marseille and Aix, we have eliminated almost 90% of traffic jams, linked to drivers suddenly and repeatedly braking, which eventually causes traffic to grind to a halt. In New Zealand, in Auckland, a city of 2 million people – i.e., almost half of the country’s population – the habitat made up of houses rather than apartment blocks is very spread out. The urban highways leading downtown are constantly regulated by artificial intelligence, with traffic lights on access roads that only allow vehicles to join the highway as function of traffic.
P. I. — For better cohabitation, does the solution lie in shared uses?
F. K. — We’re conducting a trial in Marseille on the corniche Kennedy boulevard, built in the 1950s. On two mornings per month, cars are banned – with the exception of residents’ vehicles – and the road is set aside for bikes, pedestrians and roller skaters. It’s all or nothing, like on the mountain passes, which are reserved for cyclists on some Sundays in the month. Even if it is not physically divided up, the space can be shared on a calendar basis. Similarly, we’re giving consideration to banning cars on some Sundays from the route des Goudes, a magnificent coast road so often clogged up with traffic, a 6-km-long cul-de-sac leading to the Parc des Calanques, the little village of Les Goudes south of Marseille, and culminating at the Baie des Singes. We want to provide a variety of refuges. During the week, it is possible to take the car as far as the little port of Madrague where there is a parking lot. But at the weekend drivers will have to leave their cars behind well beforehand and hop on an electric shuttle bus. The same principles could be applied in downtown areas, in order to improve traffic flow in an old town, where roads cannot be widened.
P. I. — What future for modular solutions, where LED ground marking makes it possible to turn a road into a cycle path or bus lane at any time of day as a function of needs?
F. K. — These solutions are very interesting and are being trialed at a number of locations. The problem with them remains the fact that people do not respect the basic rules, failing to observe what is happening beneath their feet. Cyclists are unable to use a cycle path occupying part of a beachside promenade on a Sunday because of the sheer number of people walking on it. People simply don’t pay attention. We need a body to regulate it all, because it won’t happen automatically.
P. I. — Are major road infrastructure projects designed in the same way in Europe and on the other continents?
F. K. — In Europe, there is harmonization when it comes to working methods as a result of regulatory and environmental constraints. However, things are very different in Asia. Two years ago, I worked in Laos, where Chinese companies are building high-speed rail lines and dams on the Mekong. The river is a vital source of food for the population as families use the silt for their vegetable gardens and crops on a total range of about thirty meters along the banks of the river. By building 70 dams in the space of five or six years on the Mekong to turn Laos into the battery of Asia, the Chinese have triggered the biggest rural exodus on the planet and drowned fertile lands. They provide derisory financial compensation and are advancing at an alarming pace. Fifteen years ago in China, to extend the port of Ningbo, which lies south of Hangzhou bay, they didn’t think twice about sacrificing four islands to make a polder. There are no environmental constraints and no laws and even if there are the project is deemed to be a “special operation” and so can get around them. They have carte blanche to develop this immense port, one of the biggest in the world. In Madagascar, I’ve seen Chinese companies building highways but halting the project when the Madagascans are no longer able to pay and the roads are left unfinished. European companies do not operate like that. Global harmonization is urgently required.