Towards an urban planning approach based on ‘living soils’?

Du 03.12.2026
au 04.12.2026
colloque de la Chaire Transition foncière

Soils, which are essential to life on Earth, are the result of a long formation process and are non-renewable on a human timescale. Preserving them is a necessity in the context of multiple ecological crises. The land transition proposes a shift in approach, moving away from an extractive and market-driven view of land towards the recognition of living soils as ecosystems to be preserved.

The symposium aims to explore the conditions for this land-use transition by examining how land-use planning models and practices – and, more broadly, territorial and urban projects – can evolve to take better account of the ecological dynamics of soils. This involves examining the necessary transformation of not only technical models, but also economic, legal and governance models, which currently underpin planning practices.

By bringing together multidisciplinary expertise (ecology, soil science, geography, sociology, architecture and urban planning), this event – which marks the culmination of the first cycle of studies by the Land Transition Chair – aims to produce a unique synthesis between soil sciences and disciplines concerned with spatial transformation.

The Land Transition Chair is the result of a collaboration between the Institute for Land Transition, the Gustave Eiffel University Foundation, the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Est and the École des Ingénieurs de la Ville de Paris (EIVP). It is supported by the two research laboratories at ENSA Paris-Est and the EIVP: the Observatoire de la Condition Suburbaine (OCS) and Lab’Urba. It also receives support from the CDC Research Institute and Nhood.

The programme for the sessions will be published in the autumn.