Villes Innovations is a design office located in Marseille, specialized in urban innovation strategies, Third Places and cultural and territorial transition policies.

Villes Innovations operates in France, Europe and internationally (Argentina, Canada, Colombia, India, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Senegal, Burkina Faso, etc.). The fields of intervention of the design office are wide: expertise, research, conferences, teaching. Since its creation in 2013, Villes Innovations has carried out more than a hundred studies and interventions with the European Union, ministries, local authorities, private operators and research organisations. These studies are carried out on multiple scales and territories (metropolises, medium-sized towns, peri-urban or rural areas, priority neighbourhoods of urban policy).

The work carried out by Villes Innovations concerns studies of territorial foresight, programming of Third Places, tactical and transitional urban planning strategies, territorial cultural projects or self-assessment and citizen evaluation missions of territorial projects. Depending on the mission, Villes Innovations mobilizes the skills of a network of partners, architects-urban planners, programmers, designers, researchers, public policy specialists, digital experts, etc.

Villes Innovations was created by Raphaël Besson an expert in urban socio-economics and doctor in territorial sciences. In 2013, he founded Villes Innovations, a design office located in Marseille and specialized in urban innovation strategies and cultural and territorial transition policies. Associate researcher at the PACTE-CNRS laboratory and co-founder of the Laboratoire d’usages culture(s)-art-société (LUCAS), his work focuses on alternative urbanisms (tactical, transitory, transitional, cultural urbanism), the transformation of territorial cultural policies in a transitional context and hybrid places, Third Places and other intermediary places.

Raphaël Besson is the author of the book “Pour une culture des transitions”, published by Éditions du LUCAS. https://www.lucasrecherche.fr/2023/12/15/pre-commandez-pour-une-culture-des-transitions-un-livre-de-raphael-besson/

He is the co-founder and host of the radio shows :

• Le Podcast du LUCAS : https://www.culture-co.fr/a-la-une/decouvrez-le-podcast-du-lucas/
• Marseille renversée : https://www.radiogrenouille.com/archive/marseille-renversee-raphael-besson/
• Villes renversées : https://octopus.saooti.com/main/pub/emission/378