LE GRAND RALENTISSEMENT
Marseille (FR) - Runner-up
TEAM PORTRAIT
VIDEO (by the team)
INTERVIEW
Click on the images to enlarge
1. How do you define the main issue of your project in relation with the theme “Living Cities Imagining architecture taking care of the milieus”? And in which way do you think your project can contribute to an ecological and/or social evolution?
Given that the pressure on environments is directly linked to the “Great Acceleration” that characterizes our era, it seemed interesting to us to consider the care of environments through the lens of speed. With the Great Slowdown, we contribute to develop enthusiastic narratives and voluntary projects that positively illustrate a post-Great Acceleration future.
2. How did the issues of your design and the questions raised by the site mutation meet?
Under the theme of speed, we addressed mobility challenges by reclaiming infrastructure, mitigated flood risks through infiltration conditions, and nurtured biodiversity via sanctuarization and renaturation. Offering a narrative encompassing all three Marseille sites, we embrace the local theme: "geography beyond boundaries." Strategic and narrative, our response navigates between the human and the territorial scale.
PROJECT:
While we already have addressed issues related to risks, impermeabilization, and mobility in urban studies, we had not fully structured a project around the question of time until now. This led us to design processes before designing spaces. In this regard, the transformation of the Aire River by Superpositions has been an inspiring project for us: a human-initiated process, where nature and time play a key role in its completion.
SITE:
The XL scale of this set of three sites compels us to deal with the long term. Based on the expectations of local stakeholders regarding the proposed strategies for the three sites, we will prioritize potential actions in both space and time. This involves maintaining an ambitious overall vision for the territory in the long term, isolating shorter-term operations to initiate changes, and demonstrating the utility of long-term actions.
REFERENCES:
We collaborate within the agence -ité, an office established in Lyon in 2019 by Jean-Baptiste Clot, an architect-urbanist with prior experience at OMA Rotterdam. Margot Stuckelberger, an architect, joined the agency in 2021 after completing her degree. Together, we have already delivered six urban studies in territories with complex, contradictory, and multiscale challenges.
6. How could this prize help you in your professional career?
We hope that this award will highlight the innovative approaches at agence -ité and our expertise in territorial strategy. As a young agency, we have primarily operated in the Lyon region so far. We wish the Europan competition provides us with new professional opportunities, particularly with Metropole Aix-Marseille Provence.
TEAM IDENTITY
Legal status: SARL
Team name: agence -ité
Average age of the associates: 28 years old
Has your team, together or separately, already conceived or implemented some projects and/or won any competition? if so, which ones?
Conceived projects by the team (extract):
- Urban study of the Vénissieux station area, Client : Métropole de Lyon, 2021 – 2022
- Architectural and urban faisability study for the Champ, Client : SPL Lyon Confluence, 2021
- Guide plan for the Parc Industriel Sud, Client : Grenoble Alpes Métropole, 2021 - 2023
WORKS:
