Reims, France

Paysage hors limite

“Paysage hors limite” – “Landscape without limits” is a runner-up proposal for the Europan 11 competition at the site of Reims in France. The objective is to create a new identity for a former university campus based on the eastern periphery of Reims. The project transforms the site into a new neighborhood. Landscape, open spaces and mobility are used to compose a flexible and sustainable living area and to accommodate collective life.

SITE APPROACH
-The quarter is an entrance to the city, thanks to the proximity of the two highways and the national road leading to the city center of Reims. This strategic point in the displacement network can become a pole for changing the mode of transport.
-The future station will play a double role: creating a fast access to the city center of Reims for the future inhabitants and allowing a better accessibility to the existing activities. The site will also be positioned at just over an hour from Paris by train.
-Many activities and equipment are present on the site, but are disconnected from each other. The new neighborhood will support connection between existing spaces – the house of Champagne for tourism, Parc of Champagne for leisure the exhibition hall for events, activity zone along the highway and the services associated (hotels, restaurants etc.)
- The site topography positions the university building with a large open view on the countryside to the north-east, transverse road on the east and the industrial and green valley to the south. The site becomes a part of the territory thanks to the large landscape and the other way around as it gets a good visibility from outside the city.
- The university site has a strong identity. The Marcel Lods planning has a specific geometry, orientation and position that enhance the axes and openings on the landscape. The existing scale of the complex answers to the public scale.

TARGETS
Three main targets have been identified to compose the new neighborhood:
- MOBILITY: insert the neighborhood in the collective displacement network – create an intermodal zone able to accommodate the cars coming from the periphery of Reims and propose collective mode of transport
- OPEN SPACES: develop links between the existing activities on the site and implement the open spaces necessary for improving and sustaining the various activities – transform the present university enclave into an open space for collective urban life
- LANDSCAPE: preserve the view and offer this landscape to the public and the inhabitants at the same time.
Those targets will be support by the development of DWELLINGS and ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE.

PROJECT STRATEGY
- The landscape generates the composition of the new urban district, points of view are preserved as collective spaces.
- The creation of a network of open spaces permits to generate new links between the former enclosed university zone and the neighborhood.
- The mobility is developed at different scales in order to accommodate motorized traffic and to insert the site within in the displacement network of the city.
- The housings are used as a mass which is able to structure the void. This is based on a modular system which will permit evolution, scalable with the dwelling and the site.

COMPOSE THE SITE FROM THE ENVIRONNEMENT- NEARBY / FARAWAY
The project site enhances a distant landscape. The visual perception becomes a thread in the urban composition. The best points of view are spotted and defined as spaces to share (between public and inhabitants). This sharing is expressed by the implementation of a large park. The neighborhood composition is organized around the collectives’ places. The objective is to connect the context to those points of view and clarify the relationship to the territory. Implementing accessibility to the site is imperative to provide a collective approach to the landscape.

INTEGRATE THE SITE HISTORY IN THE FUTUR NEIGHBORHOOD
The university space possesses an intern structure: geometry, orientation, tram connection etc. Those constructions are a key part of the site’s identity. They contain the open spaces and preserve the landscape view.
The Lods planning can be considered as an architectural and urban patrimony. Their preservation and integration in the urban space are essential. Their regular concrete structure outside the building, creating a free plan, should be recognized and preserved.
Instead of an onerous renovation, the design proposes to use this structure as alternative space in the park. The platform could welcome Skate Park, open galleria, restaurant terrace,… those open spaces can be complement by light micro structure welcoming inside spaces in the park.

A NETWORK OF CONTINIOUS OPEN SPACES
The site context is composed around the motorized network, where the place of the pedestrians is reduced, inexistent or dangerous. The requalification of the surrounding network will permit a continuity in the slow network and to integrate the site into this network.
Four types of spaces are composing the neighborhood, acting on different scales:
-the urban axes: they are necessary to keep the city on the move. They should be an urban catalyst with a mix in function and in displacement flow. They form a loop around the site, and connect the exiting avenue to the future station and the station to the garden city.
- in contrast, the site’s heart is an urban park. It implements the network of open spaces of the city of Reims and enjoys the landscape view. The urban park is directly accessible from the station area, providing an urban visibility.
- the connection axes : they are the articulation between the park and the urban axes. They start in the park and enlarge near the urban axes. This enlargement generates the articulation between the urban activity and the green heart. They have different scales depending on their importance and the searched porosity toward the park.
- the alley completes the structure of the site. Their scale is more local, as they provide access to the housing in the built spread. This path is more intimate and become a meeting zone for the inhabitants. Each alley is coupled to a green water path, which permit the regulation of rain water on the site.
Those four types of open spaces create a continuous network providing the site accessibility.

LIMITING THE CAR PLACE AND DEVELOPP THE SLOW TRAFFIC
In order to rationalize the place of the car in the project, without denying the inhabitants access to private mobility, the projects propose the concept of collective parking around the site, and accessible from the urban axes. The parking will permit to store the car and preserve the site. The positioning of neighborhood, the future station and the functional mix permit to consider a reduction in individual displacement needs. Nevertheless this dissociation of the car from the house should not generate an augmentation of the displacements times.
The objective is not to delete all motorized displacement but to propose a faster collective transport which will assure the reduction of the individual motorized displacement. An efficient collective bus system could be studied.

ALTERNATIVE TO INDIVIDUAL HOUSING DISTRICT ON THE CITY PERIPHERY
The search of comfort in life is linked to the individual house, considered by three fourths of French inhabitants as the perfect dwelling. It provides some qualities: image of an house, outside space, extension possibility, accessibility by car, feeling of security,… But we can easily note some drawbacks such as absence of proximity to services and lack of collective transport creating dependence on private car. This development as individual housing create a system consuming lot of space and networks, and leads to isolated neighborhood between city and countryside but without enjoying either of them.
The project proposes to develop individual housing in an urban context. Two typologies are proposed:
-one more urban, is composed of two houses nested in each other. They are located on the urban axis, but preserve their intimacy and privacy thanks to the elevation of the access level (position on the collective parking).
- the second take the form of a build spread, formed by a modular system of 6 by 6 meters. The addition of moduls permit to create different type of housing, from the patio house to the house between two gardens, passing by the studio. The housing possesses the capacity to extend by the construction of a first floor or by the addition of one module. This spread creates interiorized houses, with a strong relationship to an outside space.

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
The urban density become possible by the composition of the open spaces, they become breathing spots inside the city. The future park around the Lods buildings provides a specific relationship to the landscape and extends the city to its surrounding territory. The city limit disappears. Looking at the landscape becomes a way to remove the urban limit and to remove the classic rupture between city and nature.
The neighborhood conception is based on a network of open spaces, between park and urban structure. Nevertheless, the built spread is the main component. Its typological composition permits to anticipate the evolution of the neighborhood. The system can be changed, by the inhabitants themselves at the scale of the house: renting extra space, building extra level, detaching one part,… depending of the life rhythm. At a larger scale, the built spread can conquer new spaces or reduce it’s dimensions without breaking the project. The weft is a basis for change and space flexibility.

Europaconcorsi Beta

Paysage hors limite