Temporary use, a test site for the city of the future?

Temporary occupation: a stepping stone towards a sustainable city

Temporary use: what exactly is it?

The city and its territories are constantly changing to adapt to new ways of life. Although the term “temporary use” is a recent one, the origins of this urban practice date back to the 1970s, when artists and punks occupied abandoned brownfield sites without permission and converted them into cultural and public sites, thus bridging gaps left by public policies. 

Situated somewhere between short-term urban planning and sustainable urban planning, temporary use is defined by the Institut d’Aménagement et d’Urbanisme (IAU - France’s urban planning agency) as “any initiative that aims to temporarily revitalize local life - for three years on average - in unoccupied land or buildings, when the future use of the site has not yet been determined or the urban or real estate project is delayed.” These abandoned spaces also include vacant lots, railway land, industrial buildings, hospitals and offices.  

An urban practice that’s gaining ground in France...

The explosion in property prices, long-term urban design projects, digitization to facilitate relations between urban planning stakeholders, and more recently the Climate and Resilience law passed in France with a target of zero net soil artificialization by 2050, have come together to create a climate conducive to temporary use in France. 

After its slow beginnings in the 2010s, this practice developed rapidly from 2016 onwards, with the success and media exposure of the Les Grands Voisins project. This cultural centre for exchange and social inclusion took up residence in the former Saint-Vincent-de-Paul maternity hospital in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. Even though the movement is starting to produce spin-offs throughout France through innovative urban calls for projects led by public bodies (such as Imagine Angers and Dessine-moi Toulouse), the Île-de-France region remains the principal site for these initiatives. Between 2012 and 2023, close to 240 temporary use projects were launched in Île-de-France, with the region issuing a call for expressions of interest. This buzz led the city of Paris to set out a temporary use charter signed by 45 public and private stakeholders, including VINCI Immobilier. 

... but also abroad

The same observation was made in Berlin, New York, Geneva, London and Montreal. Temporary use is an approach that city stakeholders are keen to adopt to enhance unoccupied spaces or to revitalize certain neighbourhoods. In Canada, for example, many initiatives have been introduced since the 2010s to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of Vieux-Montréal. Inspired by examples of successful projects in Europe, they proposed new living spaces, including the creation of a temporary green space, Pigeon Hole, installation of a “New Wave” open-air co-working site on the banks of the Saint-Laurent river and a summertime pedestrianization project close to the Place de la Grande-Paix-de-Montréal.  

A variety of stakeholders for a winning partnership

Whether they are owners (of which 75% are public stakeholders), occupants (associations, artists, inhabitants, entrepreneurs) or local authorities (when they are not owners), each temporary use stakeholder benefits from temporary use. For the owner, it means a guarantee of avoiding illegal squatting and security costs and development of the property. As for the occupants, they can try out their activity or enjoy temporary accommodation by leasing spaces at prices below market value. Lastly, the local authorities put their facilities to work and make them more attractive at a lower cost and in a shorter timeframe. Temporary use has also created the role of facilitator, who puts owners in contact with occupants and sometimes manages the project. These intermediaries can be multi-disciplinary teams or hybrid groups, as with Plateau Urbain and Yes We Camp, and play an active role in the development and recognition of this urban approach. 

Real estate developers and promoters, previously behind the scenes, are increasingly taking an interest in temporary use projects that offer them the opportunity to test certain planned uses before launching preparations. This is the case for VINCI Immobilier with the Mainjolle project in Bordeaux. This operation, whose programming has yet to be confirmed, could propose a mix of office space, managed residences, retail and logistics. Given how the venue was set up, the site was able to be used before its delivery. Investors, tenants, residents, users and local authorities collaborated to create a forest using the method of Akira Miyawaki, and to set up an organic community grocer’s store and a temporary market.  

Temporary use in the era of urban recycling

Abandoned land: a huge potential for repurposing

There are considerable numbers of abandoned spaces in France, with and without buildings. In March 2024 there were 10,950 brownfield sites awaiting reconversion.  

In Île-de-France, the Institut Paris Région counted 4.4 million sq. metres of vacant office space in 2022, of which 1.1 million had been vacant for over two years. This number increased with the Covid-19 pandemic and the widespread adoption of remote working. Given this reality, Anne-Sophie Bonin-Ziadi, Director of Major Projects at VINCI Construction and intrapreneur at Leonard - the VINCI group’s platform for forecasting and accelerating innovative projects - has created Tempo.  

Tempo’s mission is to identify tertiary buildings that have been vacant for over a year and to find a temporary use for them, making connections between owners and stakeholders in the Social and Solidarity Economy. The aim is to lease these spaces at reasonable prices or convert them into emergency accommodation centres.  

Empty railway land: a driver of temporary use 

Since 2015, the SNCF - which owns 8.5 million sq. metres of land - has allowed associations and local authorities to use its railway land that is unused or undergoing conversion. This approach has made a significant contribution to temporary use in France. A number of temporary occupancy projects have been a resounding success (including Les Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles, Ground Control at Gare de Lyon and La Cité Fertile at Pantin) by offering unique and congenial spaces that promote encounters and sharing. 

More recently, the Bercy Beaucoup project, led by Yes We Camp and supported by the Fondation VINCI pour la Cité, moved into the Bercy Charenton mixed-use development in Paris, a 1-hectare railway brownfield site. The goal of this project? To foster the emergence of initiatives with a positive impact that foreshadow the future of the neighbourhood with inhabitants, developers, institutions and urban planners. The result is a creative third place that accommodates a community garden, a recycling depot, accommodation centres, a guinguette, a plant nursery and more... and some of these uses will be included in the final project. 

Projects that shape the city of the future

Temporary use: an instrument for urban innovation 

By adopting a flexible and iterative approach, projects developed under temporary use help renew the urban fabric, experimenting with new uses and imagining the neighbourhood of the future. Focused on local urban planning, they emphasize mixed and scalable programmes, geared towards activities as varied as events planning, art, culture, music, sport, habitat and urban agriculture. 

Projects designed in partnership, encouraging frugality

The success of a temporary use project lies in the cohesion and active participation of all project stakeholders. The neighbourhood inhabitants and local authorities must be informed and involved in the design of the site and in the choice of functions that it will accommodate. As such, temporary use is therefore a shared design tool to provide a short-term solution to social needs, while preparing urban transformations over the long term.  
Furthermore, in a world where material resources are being fast depleted, and where we need to design cities that are more frugal, more resilient and more sustainable, temporary use promotes the circular economy and low-tech* solutions, by using short loops and adopting reuse and recycling.  

* “Low-technologies are simple and sustainable systems that are accessible in terms of costs and know-how. Their impact on the environment is low because they use recovered materials and operate with low energy requirements,
with the idea of doing better with less.”

A number of challenges to overcome

The adoption of temporary use by land management stakeholders has accelerated the creation of regulations and laws governing it. What is the risk of this institutionalization? Administrative formalities are becoming more complex and timeframes for examining projects are becoming longer, which could delay the launch of projects. Time is crucial in this type of approach. We have to be able to simplify the approval steps so that projects can be accomplished quickly and investments can be depreciated. 

Too many standards could also harm the diversity of temporary occupancy projects and prevent them from meeting the specific needs of each site. It is therefore important to find the right balance between the necessary rules and the creative freedom of those involved in temporary use, so that it continues to serve as a test site for the city of the future. 

Although the temporary phase is essential for testing and fine-tuning the concepts of an urban project, we nonetheless have to think about the future use of the site as we design the project, as well as how to manage the transition towards its permanent function.