A conversation between author Pascale Joffroy and Gwenaëlle d'Aboville

vendredi 09 janvier 2026
à 13:00
Lieu : à la bibliothèque

Pascale Joffroy’s newly published book Slums in France: No Home Is Undignified seeks to stimulate reflection and debate on the “built environment” that is the slum, their exclusion from urban policy, and the way they are reduced in France to a policing issue. It calls for a radical shift in perspective.
Gwenaëlle d’Aboville, for her part, contributed to the book Aménager sans exclure, Faire la ville inclusive (Planning without Exclusion: Building an Inclusive City).
Discussions may focus on the following questions:

• Can we re-examine certain paradigms of housing and urban development directly involved in the treatment of slums, in order to explore alternative approaches?
• Can the architectural and urban sector, which aims to promote a more inclusive city, take an interest in this type of housing? In truly affordable housing for the homeless poor? In land-use campaigns?
• In light of current developments in the architectural discipline, can we collectively envisage a practice of at least temporary remediation of slums on vacant land, in the face of the recurring shortage of accommodation and housing?

Pascale Joffroy (Author)
Pascale Joffroy is an architect, lecturer, journalist and architecture critic, and an associate member of the Académie d’architecture. She is co-founder and president of the association Système b-comme bidonville, which has been working in slums across France since 2015 to design specific measures to improve living conditions. She created the Master’s course ‘Slums and Precarious Housing’ at Ensa Paris-Est, where she taught for some fifteen years. She writes and gives lectures to promote an architectural approach to slums.

Gwenaëlle d’Aboville
Gwenaëlle d’Aboville is an urban planner and architect. She is the director of Ville Ouverte, an agency she founded in 2004, which is involved in regional projects, the revitalisation of town centres and village centres, urban regeneration and the transformation of public spaces. Gwenaëlle d’Aboville teaches on the post-master’s DSA course for architects and urban planners as an associate lecturer. She is also an associate researcher at the OCS laboratory (Observatory of the Suburban Condition).
In line with the topic of this conversation, we might mention the two books she has published:
Planning without Exclusion: Creating an Inclusive City, with François Ménard, Jean Badaroux and Jean Frébault, Éditions du Moniteur, 2018
Réparer et construire la ville : pour un renouvellement de l’offre en logement, with Nicolas Binet, Éditions Le Moniteur, Paris, 2024.