Zac du Port in Pantin, France

A common base

At the east of the city of Pantin, the ZAC du Port is a territory of dialogue between the city and the canal. It is part of a vast mutation of the area, the regeneration of the industrial harbour. This changes are made by converting the area while preserving its harbour identity and whilst putting into value the canal. At the bow of this neighbourhood stands the Magasins Généraux, warehouse of the 30s, rehabilitated in a tertiary program, today the advertising office BETC.

The main objective of the project consists first of all in thinking the basis on which build the new district. This is concretized with the idea of ​​a common base on which new constructions can be built. Indeed, the diversity of buildings, old and future, in terms of typologies and activities - some dedicated to housing, others to work or services, as well as leisure facilities and places devoted to entertainment - requires a symbolic cement. It is up to the base, inspired by the current ground, to point out this piece of urban territory, to emphasize its size and to give it a new identity without making a clean sweep of the old. It comes down to the ground treatments, to the materials used to constitute a piece of town, both in terms of landscape and the uses: it is a question of making one want to survey or to settle there, to be able to cross it quickly or walk slowly. And it is still to the ground, by its lines and conductive lines to unify the public spaces a little crumbled between the islets of buildings, to connect the canal to Petit Pantin, to ensure a transition between the dense city and the changing city, as well as permeabilities between different spaces.

The guiding thread of the project lies in the imaginary gesture of throwing a net that covers all the grounds: its meshes are superimposed on the more or less regular paved frame, while the layout of these meshes is variable. The unifying principle of the net creates a landscaped background for the entire site and produces geometries that interact with the platform. Therefore, public spaces are characterized more by an overall logic than by a formal design such as an orthonormal grid.

This flexible grid, with variable stretching is able to bend to the various configurations of the project and to adapt to different densities of flow passages; it also makes it possible to harmonize new ground treatments with those of pre-existing spaces, to absorb asperities from the ground, to take advantage of traces of ancient uses.

The wharf goes from Mareuil sur Ourcq to the Seine in Paris, nearly 100km long. The project had to respect this linear thread by offering a clear accessible promenade along the canal. The canal was once curvy and it has been straightened, creating an in-between zone. The street layout is based on the old water curve, underlined today by a line of trees. It is accompanied by the Canaletto along the buildings and a planted ditch on the Place de la Pointe, collecting the rainwater. In its depression lies a skatepark. In between the wharf and the old water curve, the different public spaces are developed : place de la Pointe, Jardin de la pluie (Rain garden), salon de la plage (beach lounge), place nautique (nautical plaza) and the streets.

The Place de la Pointe, the new main public space of the city of Pantin, offers a privileged place to organize gatherings of all kinds. Also the Pointe is conceived as a vast esplanade ready to welcome all types of events: festivities, shows, markets, animations ...

Apart from its ephemeral occupations, the Pointe is also a favourable place to neighbourhood activities. Canal side, it allows to enjoy the unobstructed view of the dock, while the southern edge of the triangle is equipped with a kind of large ditch that establishes a separation with the existing frame. It is in this fold that the vegetation settles while the hollow surfaces allow skating. Between the skatepark and the paved triangle of the plaza,  a large continuous stretch of benches are ideal for relaxation, or convenient to contemplate the events that can take place on the esplanade.

Here, the raw identity of an industrial site is preserved, reinvented, and adapted to new uses. This is not a pastiche, but a new reading of the site by an urban interpretation of industrial elements of the place with the soft design made with the water and the vegetation.