New narratives to rethink our relationship with living beings and halt the biodiversity loss.

Fragments of f·r·iction

↘ The Local Urban Acupuncture Plan
Paris, both a living and ailing city, is being treated by a Local Urban Acupuncture Plan, which combines urban planning with the acupuncture theory from traditional Chinese medicine. The aim is to revitalise struggling areas to trigger positive ripple effects.
The expertise of acupunct’ORE is mobilised to guide the placement of Environmental Real Obligations* in Île-de-France, protecting soils from urbanisation or ensuring water filtration by plants in strategic locations.

The city has moved away from its disparate greening policies, criticised as a quick-fix solution to the fragmentation of natural habitats caused by urbanisation. Instead, built environments and vegetation blend with unprecedented harmony, welcoming all forms of life into the heart of the metropolis. For example, medicinal plants now climb hospital walls, while greenhouse-stained glass windows in churches protect species most sensitive to climate change.

*The Environmental Real Obligation (ORE) is a legal tool that allows landowners to bind environmental protection obligations to their land.

↘ The Unexpected Pirates
Animals are an overlooked aspect of the smart city. From the difficult coexistence of seagulls and drones to self-driving cars’ failures to recognise dogs and cats, life as an animal – or even a plant – is tough in the so-called “smart city”. Our domestic companions are now connected too. Dubbed datanimals, they face the perils of urban cybersecurity, being both hacked and vectors of attacks. The new zoonosis has ultimately taken the form of a computer virus, jumping from networked plants/animals to connected humans!

Animals and plants have become key allies in a tech backlash movement, highlighting the fragility of the connected city and the impact of urban digital technology on the environment. Hackvisits enlist wild flora and fauna to disrupt smart infrastructure in streets and buildings, whether by deceiving urban sensors or damaging connectivity systems.

↘ The New End of Life
The death process begins with end-of-life care in one of the region’s nursing homes. These homes offer residents the chance to cultivate fungi that will play a unique role: they will form the biomix in which the residents will be buried. This biomix allows the body to decompose while cleaning it of heavy metals and toxins accumulated throughout life. Each resident chooses a dietary programme that influences the precise composition of their mortuary biomix, preparing their body to best nourish the fungi that will consume them.

Elsewhere in the metropolis, a new profession celebrates interspecies cooperation: the undertaker. This once-obsolete term regains its original meaning through the collaboration between necrophagous insects and human teams, who together welcome the deceased into the ecosystem of the “cimetuary” — a sanctuary cemetery that is far more a place for the living than a traditional burial site.