Niort, Port Terrestre

2021
Team point of View
Bordering a fluctuating marshland, Niort is a land port overlooking the wetlands and leaning back against its agricultural hinterland. It's a harbour whose lighthouses would be its water towers, embodying a city shaped by the water. At the heart of an intricate geographical and landscape systems, we're developing a transverse approach of habitability and natural habitats. We are aiming towards a new policy framework: the PLNUI (intercommunal Natural Development and urbanization plan), in which Nature is raised at the same level as the need for urban development. Niort is emphasizing its position as a living city where nature and infrastructure, instead of being an opposition, will not just be a forced marriage but a new ecosystem offering desirable and unique interfaces.

Jury Point of View
The team asks fundamental questions with the long-term simulation of rising sea levels and the emergence of a “hinter-coastline”. Conceptually and in its graphic expression, this is a very strong proposal: the team constructs a narrative around the adaptation of the territory to the climate emergency. In addition to this appeal, the project provides very clever responses at all scales, and its sampling choices have a certain force. The project situations identified seem relevant, with architectural and landscape proposals closely embedded in their context. The jury appreciated the distinctiveness of the proposal and its proposal to give nature a status in urban planning documents (PLNUI).