● ARCHITECT’S ALPHABET ●

S for Sol. A letter that is far from playing it alone.

The soil is a good soldier. It welcomes all life on earth, starting with our feet, which it supports. Yet we are insolent towards it. But this attitude is obsolete. It is absolutely urgent. We must be resolutely united if we want a sunny future.

Whether you are an architect, urban planner, landscape architect, geographer, soil scientist, ecologist, farmer or citizen, we all have a different relationship with the soil, a compartmentalized vision.

Like the skin, the soil is an essential exchange system for man. And yet it is the great forgotten of development. Tamped down, waterproofed, asphyxiated, polluted, its skills are annihilated.

The soil is the link between water and vegetation.

Preserving the soil and its permeability means avoiding flooding, saturation of the networks, and pollution of waterways. It means making the city breathe by maintaining carbon sinks and islands of coolness, which are essential for coping with climate change. It also means maintaining or promoting the return of biodiversity. It also means preserving our agricultural potential and allowing healthy and sustainable food in our rural and peri-urban territories.

Numerous local authorities are instilling this awareness and are already carrying out developments that generate less land artificialisation, by designing habitats that are more in harmony with their geographical and landscape context, by preserving local agriculture, and by recycling brownfields or industrial buildings for new functions.

Urban development and land use planning are the responsibility of municipalities, inter-municipalities and regions. They have the know-how and expertise that must now be mobilized more in favor of land sobriety and soil preservation, which must be the new compass for urban planning and development.