La Mémoire Circulaire

TEAM PORTRAIT

VIDEO (by the team)

INTERVIEW
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1. How do you define the main issues of your project in relation with the theme “Re-sourcing”? Re-sourcing thanks to nature, to social dynamics, to new materiality? In which way do you think your project can contribute to an ecological and/or social evolution? And in which way do you think your project can be called a “regenerative project”?
Since the beginning of the project, our goal has been driven by a simple and essential question: how can we preserve existing values, both visible and invisible, while adapting them to contemporary societal needs? We consider the city as the source itself. In Caen, and more specifically in the Le Chemin Vert neighborhood, the diversity of urban fabrics - collective housing and family dwellings - combined with a beautiful natural landscape, reveals significant potentials waiting to be explored and developed. Our approach does not focus on a single theme but theme but dealing with the three aspects as a whole: re-sourcing from the nature, from the social dynamic and from the materiality. This translates into our three complementary strategies: re-sourcing unbuilt spaces, collective memory, and modernist heritage, constantly articulated across multiple scales. We propose to transform the area into a productive neighborhood, where urban agriculture becomes a driver for regeneration. By renewing local resources, creating jobs, reusing existing buildings, and relying on eco-friendly materials, the project redesigns public spaces and mobility networks to create a safer and fresher environment, acting as an urban anchor between peripheral agricultural systems and the cultural life of the city.

2. How did the issues of your design and the questions raised by the site mutation meet?
At the city scale, the project responds to site mutations by reconnecting the underused green corridor along the highway and the park with the urban dynamics. Two main structuring axes are reinforced: a north–south axis supported by the future tramway linking the site to the city center, and an east–west axis along the existing avenue, connecting residential areas to the Halle Molière. Within this framework, the Jacquard site becomes a new urban polarity, capable of generating social dynamics at the northern scale of the city. At the site scale, the demolition of the former Albert Jacquard school has left a central void—a gap in both the urban fabric and collective memory. Rather than filling it, the project preserves this emptiness and transforms it into a new public space. Conceived as an adaptable square, it hosts markets, seasonal events, and cultural activities, turning the void into a spatial resource charged with social and emotional value.

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