Innovation

We develop systems and methods that are especially suited to the assessment and management of emerging urban environments. The aim is to integrate international know-how, concepts and best practices, while adapting those to the local realities. These tools use innovative, efficient and replicable methods to produce reliable urban data that inform our projects but can also be shared with stakeholders to support strategic and decision-making processes.

Almost half of the world's population lives in urban areas since 2008 (a figure that is expected to rise to two-thirds by 2050). As of today, a third of this urban population is already living in “precarious settlements” with limited or no access to basic services and infrastructure and often providing living conditions that are below expected standards. Our assignments in the field of rehabilitation of precarious settlements have an experimental character as they improve shareable knowledge on a major urban issue that is still under debate and for which appropriate measures are sought. In this context, we focus our work in the subject on developing pilot interventions which are designed to be replicated in other settlements once results have been proven beneficial.

In Monrovia (Liberia), Groupe Huit (in partnership with Suez Consulting and local engineering firm ECS) has identified an investment programme in three precarious neighbourhoods. The selected programme is based on an operational and pragmatic strategy, and on the identification of existing local potential (land in particular). For each of the three neighbourhoods, the concept of the “Green Links” and the “Community Corners” have been developed (concentrating basic services, facilities and public spaces in strategic locations of the neighbourhoods). The programme of the future Community Corner was co-designed with the local communities and national and local authorities. Its modular nature means that the program and spatial organisation of each unit can be adjusted to the needs of different communities and be replicated in other locations.

Groupe Huit strives to put the environment at the heart of urban projects, so that nature is no longer seen as an obstacle to be overcome but rather as a solution to urban problems. Our focus is on designing and implementing nature-based solutions that can bring major benefits to the city in the management of rainwater and wastewater, or in fighting urban heat islands for instance.
Built-in nature-based solutions will be decisive in the sustainable management of urban amenities and infrastructure in the long run.

Our “Avoid-Reduce-Compensate” approach on carbon emission reduction is a Groupe Huit initiative to address climate change by ensuring that the benefits of our projects, which contribute to the sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are not offset by our own greenhouse gas emissions.
Runner-up in our in-house Keran Innovation Challenge, we have developed a tool to measure and reduce carbon emission in our projects.

Groupe Huit has worked with Campus AFD to design a "Fresque de la ville" for emerging urban areas, particularly African cities, by adapting the serious game "Fresque de la ville" initially developed by the dixit.net agency and focused on French cities.

The aim of this serious game?

1. To highlight the systemic issues involved in building cities in Africa.
2. To provide a basis for discussing the levers for action in emerging cities.

The game (original version and version adapted to African cities) is designed and offered under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY 4.0): it can therefore be used by anyone. You can freely adapt and distribute the game by crediting its origin ("game inspired by the Fresque de la ville created by Dixit.net with the support of ADEME, adaptation financed and produced by Campus AFD with the support of Groupe Huit"). All the source files can be downloaded.