E17 portraits - Découvre-moi une rivière

Marseille (FR) - Winner

Découvre-moi une rivière

Associates: Irati Lasa Amo (ES) – architect and urban designer, Jihana Nassif (BR) - architect and urban designer
Contributor: Antonin Bertrand (FR) – graphic designer

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"The main issue in our proposal for Marseille is to rediscover the essence of the geography of this area in order to establish a new city-river relationship. The Aygalades stream has shown its resilience in the face of the physical, chemical and symbolic damage that industrial urbanisation and the way in which natural resources have been exploited have inflicted on it over the decades. The project is based first and foremost on this thread of water, and then widens the view to the geographical scale of the catchment area, giving it ecological sovereignty. Recognising the river as a living entity ensures its physical protection and establishes a symbiotic relationship with humans, based on co-evolution between the environment and communities. Careful renaturation is at the heart of this ecocentric approach, making it possible to restore the river's ecological status and to accommodate different hydrological episodes, including extreme ones."

Hydrology, Care and Infrastructure: the Aygalades / Caravelle catchment area project
The renaturation takes place in the various urban situations along the watercourse
The transformation of places and the integration of the stream by taking new account of existing infrastructures