La Noue 93170 - New urban strategies for a Paris suburb

The Parisian suburbs are changing. The utopian projects of the seventies have now become obsolete, and too often public space is not taken into consideration as buildings are being restored or demolished. This proposal aims to rebuild public space, imagining new uses for people and new degrees of privacy, all in light and human scale architecture.

This project aims to rethink the elevated public space of La Noue and its connection to the metropolis. A small demolition and the construction of new slapped public spaces is proposed on two sides for the connection to the city. These allow the proposition of a « crossing » in the middle of the of the district. The result is two distinct and heterogenic types of public spaces instead of what was before one huge public space. The first one will be surrounded by new housing, artist workshops, shops and public facilities (a gymnasium, a little cinema, a kindergarten and a brand new social center, that will become the center of the neighborhood); the other one will offer new cooperative housing, playgrounds, community and private gardens, and sports facilities for the private spaces of the community of neighbors. The architectural proposal is light and short and contrasts with the existing concrete buildings and towers. The new buildings will be built in balloon frame wood systems: the proposition is a new layer of urbanism added on the existing one, not affecting the existing massive concrete structures, yet radically changing the context of these public spaces. The new social center shows the new aims of the neighborhood: the first levels are the existing concrete structure, and the upper level is built with a light wood structure. The windows of the old building are reused for the hanging greenhouse that overlooks the landscape.