Discrete State Spaces

2007

Adjacent to both the Sainte Anne district and the green corridor, the infrastructure's new public space forms a key link between large-scale mobility and the smaller, more intimate scale of day-to-day life. The planning process is based on a permeable, cross-functional urban form; a viaduct passing beneath the infrastructure and reaching as far as the canal establishes new connections by bridging the gap. The strip-shaped plots of land, a legacy of the former allotments, provide "wings" to the buildings, reconciling density, intimacy and different types of housing and preserving unspoilt, environmentally-friendly features.

2008-…

The proximity and complementarity of the 2 concepts and prize-winning projects of the competition caught the attention of the City and the Effort Rémois, partner operator involved in the process. Together they wished the 2 teams further developed futher the urban project in pre-operational phase, with a view to eventually lead to the implementation of a housing program for each of them. The Effort Rémois gave the mandate for an urban and architectural feasibility study of the Chaussée Saint-Martin area to the group of designers. The Municipality is associated in the progress of this study. The study is subject to thorough consultation with the inhabitants through a neighborhood committee, and the project had to integrate with difficulty the major impact of several decisions concerning the site environment : installation of a mosque and its parking lot to the east, a collective boiler room to the west. An uncertainty about the proposed option for the transformation of the highway infrastructure in urban boulevard still remains on the north shore. A financial pre-assessment then needs to reconfigure the project with more density. The development of the project urban part, prior to the development of architectural feasibility, thus entered in finalisation phase after 3 long years. The team is currently working to the reference plan and prescriptions document.