Saintes (FR), E10 - "Connex[city]"

Studies

Équipe : Volga Urbanisme & Paysage (FR)
Client : City of Saintes
Concours : 2009
Étude : 2010-…

 

Project – The process of convergence that characterises the Saint Louis site and the connectedness of viewpoints, networks and people, form the basis for a sustainable development project. A viewpoint emphasises the site’s historical and landscape legacy, employing perspectives to open that legacy up to the town and the Saintonge. The interweaving of public spaces and elements unconnected with the programme gives the district a new intensity. A new district with low, dense and compact architecture creates continuous alignments where the coexistence of mineral and vegetal reflects the Saintes identity.

Studies – By matching the marketplace and the belvedere to the scale of the town’s major public spaces, the project opens up new lines of view from the site to the town and vice versa. The successive frames structuring the lines of sight to the historic town generate an interweaving of public spaces through a central pedestrian precinct. The urban fabric embedded in this substructure reinterprets local architectural forms to ally urban density with residential privacy. The team is currently waiting to start the feasibility study for housing following the change of municipality. Early 2014, the regulation of the “Plan de Sauvegarde et de Mise en Valeur” was adopted thus making the sector ready for building and validation of the development project (which will certainly be modified following the arrival of newly municipal elected officials)..

See the project here