🔥 Sensitive Mapping & Heatwaves: Rethinking How Stations Adapt
In recent months, AREP’s Design and Hypercube teams have carried out an innovative diagnostic study at Rennes Station,
aimed at understanding how the building—and the people who use it—respond to extreme heat events.
🎤 Presented during an internal conference series at AREP and at the 4th Schematic Mapping Day
(Université Gustave Eiffel),
this project combines climate analysis with a human-centered approach to rethink how stations can adapt to climate change.
📺 A project presentation video is available here:
☀ The Context: A Sweltering Summer, a Station Under Pressure
Led by Gares & Connexions (with Jennifer Calder, Florian Carduner, and Mickaël Lhonoré),
the project aimed to develop a medium- and long-term adaptation strategy in response to heatwaves affecting:
- travelers,
- station agents,
- shop owners.
🔬 A Two-Pronged Approach: Climate Analysis & Sensory Diagnosis
AREP’s work was structured into two complementary streams:
- Climate analysis (by AREP’s Hypercube team — Mateusz Bogdan & Séverine Huet): thermal simulations, solar exposure analysis, air flow modeling… to objectify the climatic conditions within the station.
In short, everything we talk about here ! - Sensitive diagnosis (by AREP Design — Aliette Platiau & Louis Jourden): field immersion, interviews, and user/agent feedback to map out lived experiences.
🗺️ The Sensitive Map: Telling the Stories of Space
At the heart of this work is an interactive sensitive map, built on an axonometric view of the station and enriched with:
- verbatim quotes,
- field photos,
- sketches and drawings.
It doesn’t just show the space — it tells the story of what happens within it.
It becomes a tool for dialogue, decision-making, and future planning.
🎯 Why Does It Matter?
- To capture and preserve experiential knowledge, often undocumented but essential, especially from agents on site.
- To foster empathy in decision-makers, by immersing them in the lived realities of users.
- To surface multi-scale solutions, beyond architecture: signage, workspace organization, interior layouts, etc.
🔗 Learn More:
- 👉 See the project page on lhypercube.arep.fr
- 🔗 Aliette Platiau’s post on LinkedIn
- 🔗 [Louis Jourden’s post on LinkedIn]https://www.linkedin.com/posts/louis-jourden-b00965a0_comment-repr%C3%A9senter-les-ressentis-li%C3%A9s-activity-7320472770964819969-ndEu?utm_source=social_share_send&utm_medium=member_desktop_web&rcm=ACoAAApe0wIBjTElqWg2VziQ0LAqVep4HfyNba8)