ECO-(Re)START

2021
Team point of view
Istres is like Calvino's Venice. She has countless faces, with each one telling a different story. She is a historic city. The urban texture expanded by the fortress like city centre divides the urban space, making the public space and green space fragmented. Thus, they are unable to be integrated into a site that attracts citizens. She is a modern city. The rapid development of modern industry in the process of urban development has brought pollution and destruction to Lake Berre. The architectural form established to adapt to the surge in population is relatively simple, and public space cannot meet the requirements of a high-density population. She is a city of the future. In the era of urban expansion of Marseille, it is necessary to use clearer sustainable urban planning strategies to form a charm different from other places, to increase the city’s attractiveness, develop tour.

Jury Point of View
By proposing a place for the use of algae present in étang de Berre, the project recreates a strong relationship between the CEC and its environment. This alga, which only grows in clean water, has a symbolic value for the area, sign of a renewal of attention to the quality of the aquatic environment. The jury was interested in this proposal, which links to several CEC objectives: economic, ecological and educational. It also emphasised the quality of the analysis at several spatial and temporal scales, though with a few reservations about the graphic handling.