Towards a Project Insight - An enabler

The urban question has always been topical. It has always concerned urban planners, architects and city councillors. Recently, however, it has begun to impact on the traditional field of project management.

Until now, construction has been a fairly specialized physical object, with three major components: cost, deadline and quality. The urban dimension was absent or, at the very least, part of an upstream decision-making process with no direct interface with the strictly technical elements.

The growing importance of the environment, and above all of the end-user, has introduced the urban dimension as a parameter to be taken into account at every stage of a project. And this is not without consequences for the progress of operations. In fact, the presence of a third party among the technicians raises a new question of trust, as the notion of self-involvement is now out of the question.

However, this evolution is not linear. Initially, intermediary bodies took it upon themselves to develop new environmental labels leading to subsequent certification. Then, progressive thinking on energy performance led to the need for multi-criteria approaches that were much more difficult to implement.

And it's precisely the significance of such approaches that calls into question their true usefulness from the point of view of the building's end-user. What really matters is the guarantee of results, rather than communication about the formalism of an operation management system that is supposed to contribute to the service of the user.

And yet, associating the built environment with the services expected by the end user necessarily means asking questions first about his behavior, then about his mobility and his relationship with the urban environment.

And it also means networking construction with local facilities on a variety of scales (local and regional).

This interaction with the urban environment contributes to the sizing of the project. It's not just a question of enlarging the study perimeter, but also of mobilizing a series of impacting parameters.

However, beyond the static interdependence between the building and the urban morphology, there is the higher-order complexity of the dynamics of an ecosystem, given the interference of individuals.

This systemic dimension, which can no longer be ignored, means that we need to revisit the way we manage projects. To achieve this, it is essential to articulate two movements.

First and foremost, a deeper understanding of the nature of the urban context should enable us to better identify the inputs that will enrich project management....