THE PRODUCTIVE VALLEY a longitudinal experience of exchanges MASTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS MASTER OF URBANISM AND STRATEGIC PLANNING
In a valley structured by a stream and an industrial landscape, improving the ground’s quality activates new productive exchanges between Cité Parc social housing and its up- and downstream surroundings. A training and research line is stretched all along the gentle mobility path: extending the university campus upstream on an over-sized parking lot, reactivating industrial pockets downstream into diverse urban places, and occasionally taking place in the Bois du Cazier’s museum. In-between a sport and leisure system, food and flowers are grown in Cité Parc by a cooperative empowering unemployed or retired inhabitants, developing commercial exchanges with outsiders and embellishing the overall image of the site. Empty apartments accommodate students and seasonal workers to increase the social diversity.
85% of unemployment Lack of SOCIAL INTERACTION/connection in between without relation to its SURROUNDING
CAR-BASEDsystem
Unseen, bottom of a VALLEY, bad accessibility nothing happens Diversity of ages, origins – neighborhood issue social housing scaled to the topography around large scale infrastructures/activities that have NO POSITIVE IMPACT on Cité Parc
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VALLEY analysis: 1. Open spaces’ quality & public facilities
85% UNEMPLOYMENT Lack of diversity/mixity (about 1600 people – 900 housings)
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2. Industrial past of the valley
Lack of MAINTENANCE/sense of belonging Huge MEANINGLESSopen space – semi public/semi-private?
ti Prac
Cité Parc social housing is located in a valley with an industrial past. From the green suburbs of Charleroi to the denser urban tissue of Marcinelle a former railway line and a water stream structure the low landscape and link public facilities with different sizes and audiences to each other. Cité Parc is a blend of high, low rise buildings, and private houses organized on a large green space. Double roads and dead ends define the car-based system on which Cité Parc were build in the 60’s and 70’s. Most of the 1600 to 2000 inhabitants are unemployed or retired. Many families are led by a single mother. A general lack of maintenance expresses no feeling of belonging to the common areas. The huge open space has no strong function and its current state seems to divide the area in two rather than to unify.
Market demand
Claire Bosmans & Vinh Tran Trung
VE ST
Viviana d’Auria, Géraldine Lacasse, Verena Lenna, Jeanne Mosseray, Tine Van Herck
( RE )-IN
THE BIG, THE BAD AND THE UGLY ? Building the 21st Century City by re-thinking the modernist utopias Studio Concepts & Analysis - Charleroi - Fall 2014
PROCESS & COMMERCE
STRATEGY scheme: Exchanges and productivity
3. Public and private spaces
At the heart of the valley Cité Parc’s open spaces and emptiness present the opportunity to initiate productive exchanges between up- and downstream elements especially by upgrading the ground’s quality.
STRATEGY map: the Productive Valley
ORCHARD / ANIMALS AGROFORESTRY WILDFLOWER MEADOW / CEREAL FIELD GRASS MEADOW / TEMP. SPORT FIELD FLOWER FIELD
SOCIAL HOUSING analysis: 1. Places of social activity on Cité Parc children adults/elderly
2. Inhabitants of Cité Parc and their buildings
CONCEPT & RESEARCHES: Seasonal Evolution in the Productivity and Use of the Ground
14 m Walnut Trees 2 ha 10 m Cherry Trees 0.4 ha 8-10 m Peer/Apple Trees 1.6 ha 6-4 m Plum Trees 0.15 ha
Layer 1: Water Management & Topography
Layer 2: Orchards, Trees and Forests
Layer 3: Mobility - the longitudinal axis
Layer 4: Uses (Orchards, Farming, Leisure, Flowers, Research)
ORCHARDS Capital: €€€€€ Profit: €€€€€€€€€€€€€€€ Employment:
4-6 m 20 m
AGROFORESTRY Capital: € Profit: €€€ Employment:
HONEY BEES Capital: €€ Profit: €€€€€€ Employment:
3-12 m < 20 m FLOWERS FIELD Capital: €€€ Profit: €€€€€€ Employment:
Cité Parc’s map: In-between a sport and leisure system, food and flowers are grown in Cité Parc by a cooperative empowering unemployed or retired inhabitants gentle mobility line
car wash
garage
Use of space at a high rise building’s ground floor From the facade to the backyard: flower field, leisure system, orchard
to city center
water stream
recycled playground
Section in an industrial pocket in the dense urban tissue: the reconversion of a cars’ cemetery into a urban square Car wash & recycled playground on open spaces, cultural hub and second hand market in empty warehouses. local road
danse school
flower field
greenhouses
wildflower meadow
gentle mobility line, water stream
food market, outdoor theatre
Section in Cité Parc: the activation and embellishing of the social housing facade Flower field on open spaces, greenhouses on former road, food market & outdoor theatre on former parking lot Agriculture
gentle mobility line, water stream
training & research center, café
agricultural practice
open ground floor
Section in Condorcet High School campus: the new training and research center on an over-sized parking lot
Bois du Cazier museum
Lecture’s rooms
UPSTREAM A new horticulture school and its research department on the Condorcet university campus, partially invading and transforming the over-sized parking lot. IN CITÉ PARC, along the valley The gentle mobility line and local cuttings on the road system emphasize the longitudinal dynamic of the valley. Food and flowers grown by a cooperative empowering unemployed or retired inhabitants, developing commercial exchanges with outsiders and embellishing the overall image of the site. Empty apartments accommodate students and seasonal workers to increase the social diversity. A diverse leisure system mixing ages through the social housing area. Some rooms of the Bois du Cazier’s museum for lectures organized either by the university, the social housing cooperative or the working hubs of the valley. DOWNSTREAM Industrial pockets connect the productive valley to the city through the conversion of empty warehouses into leisure, commercial, cultural and working places. While developing a bigger system along the valley by improving the quality of opens space in term of view and use for outsiders and insiders, the intervention also aims to affect the feeling of belonging and pride of the inhabitants and eventually work for a better maintenance of the common areas.
Longitudinal reading of the interventions on the valley’s ground
4 Seasons in Cité Parc: place of productivities