Rochefort Océan (FR

PROJECT SCALE — XL/L – territory / urban + architecture LOCATION — The strategic site concerns three municipalities (Rochefort-sur-Mer, Echillais, Saint Hyppolyte), project sites are in one municipality POPULATION — Rochefort 25,000 inhab., the 3 communities 30,000 inhab. STRATEGIC SITE — 940 ha PROJECT SITE — 4 sites from 10 to 40 ha SITE PROPOSED BY — Rochefort Océan inter-communal area, the city of Rochefort, Syndicat Mixte du Port de Commerce (joint public venture), STELIA Aerospace OWNER OF THE SITE — Rochefort Océan inter-communal area, the city of Rochefort, Syndicat Mixte du Port de Commerce (joint public venture), STELIA Aerospace and the government POST-COMPETITION PHASE — Landscape analysis of the study site; urban analyses and development programmes for the project sites.

Jean Richer — Architecte des Bâtiments de France

1. WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF THE SITE MUTATION? “Rive active” questions a vast space in the heart of the town of Rochefort and on the banks of the Charente river, which corresponds to the historic enterprise of the old maritime arsenal. Initially, the study site articulated the commercial harbour, the historic district of Petit Parc, the ZAC of the arsenal and the horticultural area. Today, the projects submitted to the Europan 15 competition encourage us to widen the scope of intervention to the scale of the Charente estuary to join the one of the Operations Grands Sites area.

2. HOW CAN THE SITE BE INTEGRATED IN THE ISSUES OF PRODUCTIVE CITIES? HOW DO YOU CONSIDER THE PRODUCTIVITY ISSUE?

“Rive active“ presents two singularities with regard to the theme of Productive cities: on the one hand, the main problem is to allow the extension of productive activity in a constrained urban space, subject to marine submersion and close to a fragile natural environment. On the other hand, it raises the question of the dialogue between largely industrial economic activities and an exceptional architectural and natural heritage.

3. HAVE YOU ALREADY DEFINED A SPECIFIC PROCESS FOR THE URBAN AND/OR ARCHITECTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE AFTER EUROPAN COMPETITION?

On a strategic level, participation in Europan is an opportunity for the actors involved (Rochefort Océan Agglomeration, City of Rochefort, STELIA Aerospace, Mixed Syndicate of the Rochefort / Tonnay-Charente Commercial Port) to collectively reflect on the development of their sites, and to find areas of collaboration and synergies between the sites. The challenge is also to plan a longterm perspective, in particular to imagine concrete solutions to the risk of submersion.