From ideas to process-projects
Europan 16 - Grenoble (FR)
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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: Team GRAB : Grenoble RAbot Bastille (including the 3 prize winning teams for Grenoble site E16)
Client(s): City of Grenoble, Metropolitan area
Dates: 2021 - 2025
Driving forces: TEAM + CLIENT
Site
Grenoble (FR)
BETWEEN LIVING SLOPES AND INHABITED AREAS
SCALES XL/S SIZE 432 ha / 25ha
A privileged site for contemplating in the historical city centre, articulating river (Isère), massif (Chartreuse) and urbanized plain (Grenoble urban area), the Bastille suffers from the absence of a unifying narrative about its future.
How can a project be developed that contributes to a renewal of its image and practices, while preserving its singularity?
What are the elements available to be mobilized to establish a narrative of the development and management of a common good such as the Bastille?
Awarded Idea
Project - Ideas
SPECIAL MENTION (Marie Ludmann, Luc Doin, Inès Hubert, Hélène Cossedière, FR)
A NEW EAST-WEST CONNECTION
On the edge between the plain and the mountains, the Arc des Vivants redesigns the intermediate layer of the Bastille. This strategic relay for fauna and flora is reinforced by an alternative management scheme for water, absorbing natural hazards and irrigating cultivated areas. The project opens up the Micropole, resulting from the mutation of the Rabot's vacant buildings, and becomes a laboratory and observatory for culture and nature.
Project Strategy
Family: Ecological connections
The process is a spatialized programmatic study, with an architectural and landscape residency including public events and workshops, as well as action sheets and a guide-plan. The study also included a tactical urbanism focus, and an operational plan for the next few years.
The main ideas concerning the adaptation to climate change and the east-west connection through the programme, have been integrated into the project. The preservation of this special environment and built heritage, coupled with on-site experimentation, has also been a major focus of the study. The overarching ambition is to establish the site as a shared common ground: public, traversable and rooted in collective stewardship.
Following the completion of the study in early 2025, several additional events were organised for the City of Grenoble during the year to communicate around the project (roundtables, an exhibition, the Cities in Transition biennial, etc.).
At the end of 2025, the GRAB collective contributed to the launch of the Call for Expressions of Interest (AMI), initiated by the French State in conjunction with the City of Grenoble, by presenting the study and outlining the site’s challenges.
The winning team "Labo Rabo" did not wish to respond to this Call for Expressions of Interest.
Process
Category(ies): Competitive processes, Co-creative processes, Collaborative processes, Participation of the Living processes
