From ideas to process-projects
Europan 14 - Grigny & Ris-Orangis, Grand Paris Sud (FR) (FR)
« Weaving Energies »
Project strategy family:
- Ecological connections
- Inclusive morphologies
- Inventive typologies
- Reinterpreted heritage
- Urban articulations
Process category:
- Direct order processes
- Competitive processes
- Co-creative processes
- Collaborative processes
- Participative processes
- Participation of the Living processes
- Adaptative legal framework processes
Authors: alt (Frédéric Blaise, Guillaume Duranel, Julia Lenoir, FR)
Client(s): Grand Paris Sud (Plan Guide), City of Ris Orangis (Park)
Dates: 2017 - 2025
Driving forces: TEAM
Site
Grigny & Ris-Orangis, Grand Paris Sud (FR) (FR)
SCALE XL/L SIZE 150ha / 45ha
The site straddles two communities and has offers both business and residential possibilities. How to develop the premise of diversity? What kind of relationships can be established with adjacent large residential districts and with the future rugby stadium quarter, a destination on a scale with the metropolis? The site should permit the improvement of private property with the goal of developing local activity, and production that meets the needs of both local residents and future metropolitan users.
Awarded Idea
Project - Ideas
Weaving Energies
The project aims at continuing investing in renewable energies to transform this territory. It identifies existing resources on the site. One part of these is already being used and another part remains hidden. The project weaves two types of spatial actions to create the “Urban Energies Park”. The first type is called a Nod: a local action revealing and weaving a resource into the network of local resources pool. The second type of action is called a Thread: a physical pathway through the site connecting the surrounding neighbourhoods. To implement this transformation, it creates an operational tool: the “Resources Platform” that serves three purposes: managing the resources, carrying land to help innovative companies and establishing a territorial marketing strategy.
Project Strategy
Family: Urban articulations
CONNECTING TWO CITIES AROUND A PARK
In the strategic study involving the three prize-winning teams, the runner-up, Tudu office is in charge of landscape and public spaces, Alt team of the study on the local economy, and the Ydea office of housing-related issues. Dialogue with stakeholders revealed the major territorial challenges and provided a perspective on developments already underway.
The work of the 3 teams culminated in the creation of a "plan guide". The overall project retained the idea of strengthening connections between the two cities. The concept of a spatial project taking the form of an urban park blending economy, housing, and nature was preserved.
Following a call for tender open to the three prize-winning teams, the office Alt won it and has designed the redevelopment of the Parc de la Theuillerie, identified in the strategic study as a strategic space for connection and ecological continuity between the Seine and the plateau. The programming phase lasted one year, with a shared diagnostic phase (involving residents and local stakeholders), then a scenario development stage that led to the definition of the final proposal.
The approved scenario builds upon what is already in place and repairs the fractures that currently isolate the area. Regarding the aspects of biodiversity and inclusivity, the selected option is to bring down every fence of the park to foster the cohabitation between the inhabitants. The wooded areas with mainly invasive species will gradually be replaced with local species.
The works starts with the southern forecourt, which now serves as the park’s new entrance and with the removal of fencing along the Grigny road. Created by the de-impermeabilization of a parking lot, this new forecourt illustrates the intention of the future redevelopment project of the park in the years to come: use of reused materials, permeable surfacing recalling the history of the site, planting of local plants.
Process
Category(ies): Direct order processes, Collaborative processes, Competitive processes, Participation of the Living processes
Direct order processes
Following the competition, a strategic study was entrusted to the 3 rewarded teams, each of which was tasked with developing a specific theme.
Collaborative processes
For this study, the teams worked with local stakeholders through interviews and workshops based on a model to jointly develop the project.
Competitive processes
Following this masterplan, the town of Ris Orangis launched a restricted tender to the 3 Europan rewarded teams for the redevelopment of the Theuillerie Park. The winning team, ALT, was awarded the contract.
Participation of the Living processes
The Theuillerie Park is located at the geographical junction between the plateau and the hillsides that descend towards the Seine, forming an ecological continuum between both environments.
