Fosses

How can the site contribute to the adaptable city?

In the development zone within the wider Roissy area, the proposed site stands at the heart of the original rural village of Fosses. Its authentic village architecture corresponds to its status as an urban fringe on a farmland boundary. As a part of the town that is somewhat static and isolated, it needs to be revitalised without denaturing its particular qualities. The project raises questions at different scales. At the territorial scale, the remit is to respond to the exemplary nature of an operation that stands at the interface between the natural landscape and the urban environment; to imagine it as a stage in a regional network of processes linking different towns. At town scale, the remit is to think about establishing a dynamic that can give the village a new identity. At site scale, it is about exploring the proximities and dialogues between the contemporary character of the project and the nature of the historic centre with its archaeological legacy. This site offers an opportunity: 

- to design a new housing district in a neighbourhood distinctive for its part urban, part rural status, 
- to generate dialogue and harmony in the relation between the existing fabric and a new and exemplary project, 
- to develop ideas about the nature of the links and the spatiality of the loci generated by public space, 
- to devise buildings that support and changes that reflect the refurbishments that characterise the project site, 
- to think about practices and spatial developments within a timeframe commensurate with the changes, and which promote social bonds by encouraging mixity and shared uses and by appealing to different populations. 

City strategy 

Four major objectives embody the municipality’s priorities in seeking to highlight and enhance the values of this area. In order to fulfil these objectives, the teams are asked:

1- To match the urban renovation programme underway on Fosses town centre and station hub, by drawing on the village’s historical and natural legacy to develop a project of urban regeneration and economic revitalisation that creates a new focal point at the heart of the old centre, the only part of the town that falls within the Oise Pays de France Regional National Park, 
2- To make the village of Fosses a centre of cultural and ecological attraction, at the crossroads of a historical and natural route that extends along the whole Ysieux Valley: A Pottery History Centre, artist’s workshop combined with a gîte and bed-and-breakfast accommodation, promotional zone for the valley and its landscape, walking and cycling tracks…
3- To promote the development of sustainable economic activities by taking advantage of the proximity of the municipal technical centre (CTM) and the farmland bordering the site: sale of sustainable agricultural products, craft centre and locus of CTM related activities, etc.
4- To increase the range and quality of housing in the area, by developing innovative and appropriate programmes that meet the needs of different populations at different stages of the residential cycle: social and first-time buyer housing, designed for young adults and families.

Site definition

A member of Roissy Porte de France Intermunicipal District, the town of Fosses is located at the edge of the built-up area around Paris, in the Grand Roissy development zone and within the immediate sphere of influence of Paris/CDG airport. 
Its location, its specific geography, its stretched urban layout, make it a gateway and connection between town and country. 
At the heart of the old village, away from the recent town, the project site retains a character that calls for regeneration. 
Bounded to the South by the main road running along the route of the Ysieux River, the town extends to the North upwards along Rue de la Mairie as far as the cemetery, which stands at the edge of the countryside. A housing estate and old farmhouses to the West and a range of properties to the East form the town limits and development boundaries. Along Rue de la Prairie de Rocourt and the high Street, the Church, alongside the “Centre for the interpretation of the Ysieux Valley’s ceramic heritage”  and old farmhouses, function as landmarks and focal points for the new neighbourhood. The plots currently occupied by various municipal services and institutional buildings offer potential for conversion.

Adaptability : main elements to take into account

Several working themes provide the basis for possible responses. 

-  A transit neighbourhood: the aim here is to articulate the movement from the urban centre to the countryside, to weave a network of roads that qualify the public space and generate continuity, accessibility, permeability and traversability, creating a link via the countryside to the other part of the town.
- A neighbourhood conceived over time: To incorporate the time factor, projects should take an experimental approach to successive phases of implementation in the development of public space, and in the construction or refurbishment of buildings. Establishing stable prospects means accepting morphological changes, programmatic alterations, temporary activities and even a degree of reversibility, in order to take a relevant approach to the urban quality of the spaces and the form of the buildings. 
- A neighbourhood of diverse activities and practices: The plots within the project area are currently occupied by a number of municipal amenities and services, and by housing. Possible conversions based, for example, on a new approach to the role and management of the technical services, should contribute to proposals exploring the relation between housing and work, housing and schools, shops, economic activity, and more generally shared uses and a mix of programmes on the site. There are also opportunities to be exploited in the presence of cultural and religious spaces. 
-  An experimental modern district: As a newly devised reflexive interface between town and nature, consonant with a sustainable landscape, the objective here should be to experiment with the morphology of a new urban focal point, sensitive to the existing context, which raises the question of density and permeability, and weaves organic links between housing, amenities, activities and culture. 

There is thus a unique opportunity here to create a new, contemporary, central urban space that will forge an organic link between town and country and, in terms of quality of life, meet the needs of the population. 
On the strategic scale, the teams will be expected to develop proposals based on guidelines that reflect possible short-term and long-term changes and transformations, to stratify and interweave the themes developed within the framework of a contextual analysis that explains the development of the project ideas. 
At site scale, they are asked to propose urban and architectural schemes which, within reasoned timescales, provide a framework for the practical implementation of an explicit operational programme. For the purpose of contextual harmony, the aim is to contribute to a strong sense of community, with comfortable exchanges and flows; to highlight the archaeological, historical and agricultural richness of the area; to model the solids and voids, the landscape of an equitable neighbourhood, where people will take pleasure in moving around, living, working and learning.