Hello. In this video we will see today a working method. We are going to talk at length about urban planning, the course subject. We are now going to see an example of a planning that was done in N'Djamena. The interest in planning as we are going to show it, is to put the focus on a method that we have developed some years ago. So in a very synthetic way, the city of N'Djamena, the historical and colonial center, working class neighborhood as we have often spoken of each time. A segregated city, a river here, with bridges over the river to connect the South Shore to the North Shore. A border, since this whole area here, we are in Cameroon, the airport. And finally we see that the city has developed like this with a first beltway, a second, but when is the third ring? There you have a very quick base drawing of the city of N'Djamena. So let's review some images. Let's go downtown. Some atmosphere pictures for those who do not know, who have never had the chance to go to N'Djamena. These are things that can be found in most cities of this region. And the working class neighborhoods not far from downtown, we see that just as in many places in Africa, we have here a waste water disposal that happens out in the open. There are a number of collectors and of course the streets are not paved. Let's talk about method now. Here's a first group of municipality and department officers. The idea was to create the planning and to train people. It was necessary to answer very quickly to a demand from authorities to make an urban plan, a framework document, the first document, a planning sketch and for this we have brought together twenty participants. We have brought together participants from Ministry and participants and City Hall. We have taken young, young budding urban planners, to create this plan together. Therefore, the application was both a training and a planning. Rather than separate the two things, we have combined the two things, and we have said, we are going to plan together, and to train together. So we bring everyone together in one room, we discuss, we draw in groups, each one making its diagnosis. each image is discussed, each option, each part of the diagnosis is put on paper and we draw once again together. The idea here being that we have 20 participants. We are not going to know who knows the most about the city of N'Djamena, it's not the objective. The objective is to add up all of this knowledge and all of the abilities of the participants. So there is no right, there is no wrong, there's no what's true. There are abilities and knowledge that people have. People can talk about their neighborhoods, of the road, of the problem of a certain neighborhood, of the problem of a certain facility or a certain infrastructure and we put this all together on the paper. And I guarantee you that with 20 people, we very quickly have a photograph which is relatively correct of N'Djamena in very, very little time. That in two, three days we have a diagnosis together. We discuss, we decide, people don't agree. We put it on paper and then each group presents their ideas. So we make a diagnosis. Then, this diagnosis, we are going to extract the main issues put on paper. Then these issues, we are going to transform them in political orientations. Finally, it's not because there's a problem that we decide to solve it. So what is interesting for us to know, is at what moment we have a problem, what is the exact problem, and are we going to solve it or not? And then it will become an orientation if we decide solve it . In that regard, we have orientations, then we're going to spatialize them on a plan. So, always in groups, in orientation groups, we redraw and then we project these different drawings, these different handmade sketches. And directly, all together, orientation by orientation, we draw on the board, directly from the computer. We do it so that the drawing is done little by little with everyone coming to a end result. So it's really we decide all together, we draw all together, and in this case, the expert is here to bring a number of elements and reflection. So it's not the expert that will make the plan, it's the participants who make the plan. They are questioned, they are pushed a little so that they come up with the best of themselves and we realize very quickly that we end up with excellent results. Here is a quick plan which is the diagnosis plan. This was made all together, we have just redrawn it. And then, when it comes to the planning, stage by stage, we have a river we have an existing city, we have city limits urban perimeter limits, administrative cutbacks, then a slice, a road network, a number of green areas and industrial areas, water problems in downtown, draining, large infrastructures, the center which gets drawn slowly, the projection of future roads, priority areas to be restructured. And so, little by little, by phases, we end up with a master plan, of course with the final title block which is very important, since it doesn't suffice to just make a drawing, it's also important to know what the drawing is that was put in place. There you have very quickly, an experience that was done with the Urbaplan office, a Swiss office. I myself participated as expert to develop this method with this office. It's one way to go about it that we are proposing to you. What are the advantages? The advantages are undeniable. It is then that people who have developed the plan, are the people in administration who will have to put it in action. It's people who will finally have to enforce or not, and it's easier to enforce regulations, if it's you who has written it. It's easier to enforce a plan if it's you who has created it and who has integrated all the stages. It's not something that comes from the exterior which is imposed, it's something that is imposed from the interior. And finally, at each stage, each decision, we know why such or such a decision has been taken. So it's easier then to justify to the exterior that this should have been done like this, because we know the whole story of this decision making. And this is fundamental. We are not dealing with a participatory process, it's not participation with people. We are dealing with macro planning of a city, large orientations, big options. But we all do it within an administration, within the municipality, which allows for the training of young urban planners, and also at the same time all these people will be those who in five, ten years, will still have to enforce this urban plan, this planning. And it's for this reason that they must be quickly, very quickly integrated in the process, rather working in workshops, and above all using all of the abilities of the people. Each person, each land planner, geographer, political, each citizen even has a number of competences, knows the land, knows the problems that occur. And the idea for us is to put all of this in common and have a situation, a diagnosis, a quick basic image which may be validated by all and amongst all. There you have it, the end of our case study of the city of N'Djamena.
