Winner – Boîtes à secrets

Boîtes à secrets

AUTHOR(S) — Clément Bertin (FR), Sara Impera (IT), Martin Kermel (FR), Architects CONTRIBUTOR(S) — Nicolas Durand (FR), Graphic designer

PORT-JÉRÔME-SUR-SEINE (FR) — WINNER

CONTACT — Caracalla + Sara Impera Architectes clementbertin@caracallaarchitectes.com www.caracalla-architectes.com sara.impera@gmail.com / www.saraimpera.com

TEAM POINT OF VIEW — The agglomeration of Port-Jérôme-surSeine is characterized by its productive function. It is an invisible urban enclave in a landscape divided between rurality and industry, which still loses inhabitants in favour of dense urban environments. The core of the question then becomes the search for new forms of attractivities for the territory, but also a form of local economy that can stably retain an active and dynamic population. In the context of a conversion of heavy industry towards the low-carbon green industry, a global rebalancing between the different forms of productivity of the territory is therefore at the basis of the process of revitalizing Port-Jérôme-sur-Seine. To answer this problem, the overall vision of the project is focused on the massive introduction of plants as environmental and economic capital at different scales and in different forms.

JURY POINT OF VIEW — The project resolutely tackles the problem of the city entrance and the interface between the city and the petrochemical site by establishing a multimodal hub covered by a hall where circulation and the city’s various programmes (city of energy, co-working spaces, etc.) intersect. A massive introduction of vegetation defines the new diverse neighbourhood resulting in an inhabited forest landscape.