MONIQUE RUZICKA-ROSSIER
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Density is neither a problem, neither a solution. It is a way to measure land occupation and to evaluate the areas where peoples live; however the instrument became the object of appreciation. Often the person, who designs cities, solves urban problems by promoting density coordinated with transports; it is necessary but not sufficient. Cities growth depends on the peoples who live in and around it, and of all the relations that exist inside or outside. An increase incivilities report in city districts pushes to ask the question of the impact of the social and cultural specialisations; and then the role of diversity. The appropriate question is not how dense city districts should be, but how diverse it should be?

Density, taken as an indicator that measuring co-presence of inhabitants, (research Swiss PNR 54 2005-2008, Lévy, Stock, Ourednick, Ruzicka) is relevant of importance a space can have. But the perception of this density –good or bad quality of living- is strongly bent with the “who” composes this density, and “how” relations are constituted. That means what kind of diversities it is, functional, social, cultural, or linguistic, and how it is spatially organised.