From ideas to process-projects
Europan 16 - Grenoble (FR)
« The Urban Refuge »
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
The Urban Refuge
RUNNER-UP (Tom Barbier, Jean-Benoît Boccaren, Paul Riffault, FR)
WALKING AND CONTEMPLATION
To become an urban refuge, the Rabot must be crossed to reconnect with the city and its geography. Like a round road, the walls become the new links that connect the valley to the Bastille. Acting as a protection, they turn the Rabot into a nature sanctuary on the mountain. Thanks to the side roads, the Rabot becomes central and is at the crossroads proposing a refuge of passage or stopover, a refuge of events.
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 urban refure and adaptation to climate change 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, Participative processes, Participation of the Living processes
Competitive processes
Following the competition, the city worked on new specifications based on the ideas of the three rewarded projects, in order to launch a new restricted tender for the three Europan rewarded teams.
Co-creative processes
The three teams decided to join forces to answer this tender and formed a new, single team (GRAB), which was then commissioned to carry out a programmatic study on the Rabot Bastille competition site.
Participative processes
During this programmatic study, a phase was dedicated to actions involving the participation of the public and local stakeholders through workshops and open days, organised during on-site residencies by the GRAB team.
