20 March 2025, online
As part of the “Urban Health Culture of the Future” series, INTA hosted its second conference, which explored how urban environments shape mental health and social connectedness. Two complementary presentations offered deep insights into how mobility and housing can serve as pillars of mental resilience in our cities.
Helle Juul, President of INTA, made an introduction and a presentation of the two speakers.
- Étienne Lhomet, Director of DVDH, a French consulting firm specializing in sustainable mobility. Presentation : how efficient urban mobility infrastructures reconnects individuals; recent experiences around the world.
- Léa Portier, Partner and Tamara Yazigi at Recipro-cité, a French company specializing in the design and implementation of shared accommodation projects. Presentation: how shared accommodation projects revitalize social ties: the experience of Récipro-cité.
🟦 Étienne Lhomet (DVDH) – Healing Cities through Urban Mobility
Étienne Lhomet, offered a compelling presentation advocating for a systemic and human-centered approach to urban mobility. He argued that cities are living organisms, and when they suffer from dysfunction—such as congestion, fragmentation, or social isolation—so do their inhabitants.
Using global case studies, he showed how infrastructure can be a form of therapy:
- In Medellín, the combination of metro lines, cable cars, and social programs (public libraries, childcare centers, women’s empowerment initiatives) helped reconcile a city once marked by violence, fostering dignity and urban pride.
- In Bordeaux, pedestrianisation and the introduction of tramways reconnected neglected neighborhoods with the city center, sparking a new urban vitality and economic renewal.
Lhomet emphasized that mobility should be designed with empathy and social diversity in mind, accounting for the needs of vulnerable groups: women, seniors, children, and low-income workers. Urban transportation, he insists, can act as medicine, if it listens to the city’s symptoms and responds holistically.
🟪 Léa Portier & Tamara Yazigi (Récipro-Cité) – Rebuilding Social Ties through Shared Living
Léa Portier and Tamara Yazigi presented the approach of Récipro-Cité, a French company specializing in intergenerational housing and inclusive urban spaces. Their talk focused on the growing issue of urban loneliness, especially after COVID-19, which severely impacted both young people and the elderly.
To combat this, Récipro-Cité proposes a range of solutions:
- Co-designing housing projects with residents through participatory methods,
- Deploying on-site community facilitators to foster daily social interaction,
- Creating shared spaces (Maisons des Projets) that become lively meeting points for residents and neighbors.
Their impact studies show tangible results:
➤ 81% of participants feel surrounded by others
➤ 65% feel like they belong to a group
➤ 62% believe they contribute something positive to their community
The speakers stressed the importance of urban professionals being trained in mental health awareness, and of engaging residents from the start of any urban design process. In their view, social cohesion is not a byproduct—it is a central goal of urban health.