What are the missions of AUAT?
The town planning agency will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2022. It was created with the support of the State to reflect on the issues of mobility and town planning in Toulouse, Colomiers and Blagnac. Today, the AUAT, reached by Annette Laigneau, works in the metropolitan area of Toulouse, a vast area stretching from Carcassonne to Auch and from Cahors to Tarbes, with three fields of intervention: observation of the dynamics of the territories , support for public policies (in particular in the preparation of town planning documents) and animation of the territories.
How has the Covid crisis changed the work of AUAT?
One year ago, during the first containment, the operation “The other tomorrow”, with a series of studies and meetings on the impact of the crisis by geographers, sociologists, town planners, architects, engineers transport, economists, demographers… from the agency. In this context, we are organizing a videoconference on Monday on the theme “what a happy future for our territories?”. It is a question of taking stock of this year of forward-looking work and of offering our help to the territories of the metropolitan area to prepare a future that we hope will be as happy as possible.
What is a revealed crisis?
It showed that we were quite ill-prepared, in general, and demonstrated the need to adopt a forward-looking culture. It revealed its complex dimension, a systemic aspect: the effects were very diverse and affect all sectors. The agency aims to simplify and help communities prepare for the future.
A future based on teleworking, a return to nature?
Not everyone can move to the countryside to work from home, there is a spouse, children and their education to take into account. It’s a tiny part that can change your life. The climate crisis and nature in the city were already there before the crisis, but the Covid has undoubtedly accentuated the phenomenon. Rather than returning to the countryside or from town to country, we can talk about town at home: it becomes the place of multiple functions, online shopping and medical consultations, teleworking … housing is no longer just a place. where we come to sleep and spend our evening. As for aeronautics, the territory benefits from a wealth of skills that can be deployed to meet the climate challenge, in this sector and others, such as new forms of mobility.
Yann director of the Toulouse Metropolitan Area Urban Planning and Development Agency (AUAT).