Grigny & Ris-Orangis, Grand Paris Sud (FR)

How can the site contribute to the productive city?

The site straddles two communities and has offers both business and residential possibilities, unlike the nearby large logistics platforms. How to develop the premise of diversity? What kind of relationships can be established with adjacent large residential neighbourhoods and with the future rugby stadium quarter, a destination on a scale with the metropolis?
The site should permit the improvement of private property with the goal of developing local activity, and production that meets the needs of both local residents and future metropolitan users. Terres Saint-Lazare business area is established in 80 % of private lands.

City strategy

Two great projects will guide the coming renewal of this great territory : the area around the ongoing rugby stadium project and the Operation of National Interest for the requalification of the Grigny 2 (ORCOD-IN) degraded property. The two municipalities are exploring innovative ways for their regeneration strategies (Ris-Orangis) and the repair of urban divides (Grigny). The city of Ris-Orangis is seeking project processes that would bring an original diversity between housing and productive economy through innovation projects. Grigny holds a mutable land controlled in the city center and at the foot of the railway station. The equation to be resolved is to make this territory productive for crossing users and for all inhabitants in terms of economic activites, quality of life and exceptional environment.

Site definition 

The site is of a minimum width in the two municipalities. It is at the crossing of major road infrastructures including the motorway A6, two RER D stations and close to two dense residential neighbourhoods.
It has a network of small and medium size business and several food-processing businesses. This « minimum width» is an asset for tackling the issues of productivity and lack of networking between the two cities. In Ris-Orangis, the discussion focuses on the transformation of old industrial and business sites and the renovation of an site still in activity. In Grigny, the question is mainly one of site upgrading on unoccupied land near an RER station and conserving property. All this will have to be done in a logic of rearrangement to make the link between the large urban entities surrounding and the no less important projects in progress.

How is Production Considered in the Urban Diversity Program?

From business park to residential area at the interface between two municipalities
Property in immediate contact with residential areas and near major urban transport hubs allows for work to be fully integrate into urban life. How to weave together these two territories and use local economy to create a mixed quality neighbourhood?

Enhancement, identification and use of the local ressources
While always a concern to diversity, the existing structures must be studied and transformed so they can integrate new private, public or shared uses, considering the alternative rhythmes of the different occupations and their possible mutation. How to identify and enhance what makes the presential economy on the territory ?

Establish a transition to urban production and complex site management
The complexity of issues and the multiplicity of actors involved on the site are key factors for transitional upgrading of available land in the context of broader processes that take into consideration the period of change on the site. How to develop urban planning “acupuncture” and set a process in motion?

Repairing territories and connections between the two cities
The site is a fabric of small and medium-sized enterprises creating a source of employment in extreme urban proximity. The territory needs to be woven back together and connections established between the two cities, especially between the Plateau / Moulin à Vent and the Grigny 2 condominium estate.