ANGERS

SCALES — L/S – Urban / Architectural LOCATION — North Saint-Serge – Gaston Ramon Boulevard POPULATION — City 151,000 inhab. STRATEGIC SITE — 180 ha / PROJECT SITE — 80 ha SITE PROPOSED BY — Angers Loire Métropole, City of Angers, AURA (Urban Planning agency for the Angevine region), ALTER (SPL Anjou Loire Territoire a public development corporation) OWNER OF THE SITE — private and public owners POST-COMPETITION PHASE — workshops, urban and/or architectural study and/or project to initiate with partners

Daniel Dimicoli — Vice president in charge of housing and urban planning policies, Angers Loire Metropolis Roch Brancour — Deputy mayor in charge of urban planning and the organisation of the public domain, Local Councillor

1. WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF THE SITE MUTATION? The aim is to strengthen the local economy by asking the entrepreneurs to be the stakeholders of change in order to make this territory lively and sustainable. The site benefits from a wide diversity of places and activities appealing to various answers reconnecting it to the urban and natural fringes as well as spreading out new uses accessible to the broadest public. It is about generating evolutions in support of an innovative approach of co-construction with economic actors, inhabitants and service users.

2. HOW CAN THE SITE BE INTEGRATED IN THE ISSUES OF PRODUCTIVE CITIES? HOW DO YOU CONSIDER THE PRODUCTIVITY ISSUE? The industrial and commercial area of Saint Serge is exceptionally well located since it is part of the extension of Anger city centre and nearby the Maine River. Today it appears as a fragmented territory that has evolved, on an ad hoc basis, without coherence and understanding of the site as a whole, and is made of urban and architectural forms of the 1970s. The example of the National Interest Market (Marché d’Intérêt National), designed for being opened to the city and for integrating the management of the last kilometre, shows the important possibilities of evolution of the site. The reflections, led by the Grether team, are going to stimulate the experimentation potentials to reach new forms of urban and social diversity.

3. HAVE YOU ALREADY DEFINED A SPECIFIC PROCESS FOR THE URBAN AND/OR ARCHITECTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE AFTER EUROPAN? The process is currently being defined. It will integrate conclusions resulting from the exchanges with the teams.

Positive Loops

AUTHOR(S) — Solenne Sari (FR), Pierric Amella (FR), Florian Camani (FR), Mathilde Luguet (FR), Architects-urbanists

ANGERS (FR) — WINNER

CONTACT — Paris (FR), T. +33 638755088 contact@positiveloops.eu, www.positiveloops.eu

TEAM POINT OF VIEW — In response to the challenges of climate change, we propose a sustainable approach to the area’s regeneration, inspired by the idea of circular economy. The goal is to reveal the site’s remarkable geography, its connections with the city and the Maine river. To do so, we identify the potential resources and stakeholders of the area, bringing together those with shared interests. Each initiative and project, whether public or private, must deliver urban and economic renewal, while improving the common good. This will be realized through mutually reinforcing cycles of positive change: the Positive Loops. Four loops are illustrated: the economy of recycling and reuse, a productive vegetation, higher land values through redesigned public spaces, new capable and adaptable structures.

JURY POINT OF VIEW — The proposal is coherent, comprehensive and inventive with regard to the theme. The project provides answers to process and urban and architectural spatialisation. The work, combining new programme combinations and adaptable architecture, is rich and has great realisation potential. The urban aspects are assured and yet maintain a degree of flexibility and adaptability for the partnerships to be established with private actors.

Les chemins de traverses

AUTHOR(S) — Oceane Follador (FR), Architect-urbanist CONTRIBUTOR(S) — Maël Clavier (FR), Architect

ANGERS (FR) — RUNNER-UP

CONTACT — Nantes (FR), T. +33 626515804 oceane.follador@gmail.com, www.atelierdespossibles.fr

TEAM POINT OF VIEW — The project’s perimeter is a section of territory perpendicular to the River Maine, including pavilions of Monplaisir, a massive shopping centre, Sheds of the MIN, sculptural site of ancient limekilns... The site recalls Jacques Prévert’s universe, made of impenetrable plots, improbable scale ratio, all combining with pieces of Anjou’s history. It turns out to be a passive cohabitation resulting of random movements of the city through times. “Les chemins de traverses” is a process project that uses public space as a support for the transformation of the site. The project is built around 3 transverse tracks, infiltrating the existing urban fabric. Their layouts, urban programming and modes of actions are built around three founding themes, experiencing the very essence of the territory: sharing, memory and uses.

JURY POINT OF VIEW — A project with an approach that is sensitive and attentive to uses and that relates to the site and its inhabited environment. A relevant response that creates areas of activity from voids, public space and pathways. It responds to the theme in a quirky way and considers the time needed to implement the project by questioning the value of interstices in a productive city.

AUTHOR(S) — David Palussière (FR), Camille Tréchot-Jasnault (FR), Architects CONTACT — Baltique, Rezé (FR) T. +33 665953261, bureau@baltique.archi, www.baltique.archi

TEAM POINT OF VIEW — The Saint-Serge Nord business area is in a good economic condition. Consumers consume, companies buy, heavy goods vehicles circulate: trade and production are done. Yet the interest is falling: soils are depleting, productivity is falling. Like intensive agriculture, the area has reached a limit. It is high time for a transition to polyculture. As Angers aims at being a green pioneer city, the urban renewal of the city will find its vocabulary in the innovative sphere of agriculture: permaculture. In the manner of a garden, actions are often measured empirically, by trying. Around a large model site, engaging all stakeholders, the negotiation of the urban project will be based on a board game. A way of arising the unprecedented and producing meaning before producing anything else.