Matrix

The convergence of three urban fabrics: outlying districts, the garden city and the project housing of the sixties find expression in the Jeanne d’Arc district, organized around a park. The matrix produces three housing typologies in response to the three urban fabrics. It gives rise to a social and urban mix hitherto inexistent. The creation of new business poles and an urban park give a true living identity to the area and its inhabitants.
The project is composed like a construction of strips, using a contemporary vocabulary, oriented towards the creation of places for living. The housing typologies are installed naturally in the parcels in a constant relationship with the matrix. Pedestrian itineraries are continuous via town houses, workers’ gardens, the park, multi-family plots and sports facilities.

2004-2009

The different phases of the process proceeded with relative continuity, within the framework of a traditional development procedure (ZAC). At the end of the competition, the team was awarded an urban project management commission for the development of the site. The presence of a selected operator from the start of the competition led to a rapid transition to the implementation phase.
In the urban project developed by the team, over three years with the municipality and the different partners, the architects were able to retain the competition’s street mesh, whilst adjusting their matrix, particularly on the edge of the site. But overall the urban project was impoverished by the loss of the initial programmatic diversity.
Implementation enabled the team to innovate in the process and adapt the project to the economic realities of land ownership, increasing the density of the original project, notably on Boulevard Pommery.

2010-2012

The team remit as planning architects was first to establish an operational layout plan for the 7 ha area. They were then commissioned with the architectural specifications for the ZAC and with architectural oversight of the whole urban project, as well as project management for 54 apartments and twelve townhouses.