Catherine Lavandier, Lecturer at the MRTE (Mobility, Network, Territory, Environment) laboratory of Cergy Pontoise University, France, Acoustician Pauline Delaitre, PhD student at the MRTE laboratory, financed by the Île de France (Paris region) R2DS network Maria Basile, Lecturer at the MRTE (Mobility, Network, Territory, Environment) laboratory of Cergy Pontoise University, France, Architect
In order to provide a better understanding of the features of quiet areas in an urban environment, Pauline Delaitre recently organised two consultation workshops as part of her thesis. These workshops were held in Paris and in Cergy Pontoise and brought together twenty or so inhabitants in total. The method used was inspired by ”cultural probes”, a method developed by Graver in 1999.
When we ask city dwellers: « Where would you go to find peace and quiet? », the answer often given is “parks”. But a little further on into the conversation, the main feature which emerges, beyond the presence of greenery, is the degree to which the place in question can be perceived as being outside the urban time space. The quiet area makes it possible to escape from the urban atmosphere: ”I find that when you are on Avenue de Clichy [in Paris], it’s very noisy and yet when you enter this area, you feel like you’re in a village”. It’s a comparison very often used to describe such an area. The notion of quiet is often quoted with reference to another situation: ”[This park] is quieter than that one”. What’s noticeable about quiet areas is the change in atmosphere that they offer, whether through a change of space or time. The greater the contrast between two areas or two moments is, the greater the impression of quiet is: “An ugly noisy road, it’s not exactly what you’d call the nicer side of Pontoise, and there you are in this cemetery which I also find very unappealing, yet even so it’s so very quiet”. When the senses are used for the purposes of an alert, the resulting tiredness can mean that your attention wanders: ”When it rains, it’s not quiet. The rain makes the road surface and the paths very slippery. Rain can hinder vehicle vision and even hide certain noises”. A quiet area is seen as a place which is calm and free of any danger where you can drop your guard a little: “When I can watch it [a storm] from a place where I know I’m safe, I feel at ease”. To qualify as being quiet, an area must be free from « any form of aggression », whether it be to the eyes or the ears: “The bus is quieter than the metro. […] there’s the noise of the metro itself and the buzzers at every station”. “There’s no noise and yet I still wouldn’t say that this is a quiet place. But that’s because visually I find it very aggressive”. So the quietness makes it possible to feel things which remind you of nature: “When there are little paths, gardens, the ground is softer. The texture is more pleasant, and reminds one of the textures found in the countryside”.
The workshops have shown that in certain situations quiet can be inappropriate or may be frightening: “It’s very quiet but it’s a bit dead”. The European directive on noise management in the environment requires the implementation of action plans for protecting these quiet areas. But shouldn’t we also protect high quality acoustic zones as Lex Brown suggested? Indeed, the coming and going which in general denotes the presence of human beings may be desirable, because it is often associated with the notion of sharing. All the features mentioned above must now be presented in terms of town planning in order to help decision makers implement their noise prevention plans within the environment.
