Grand Nancy (FR)

SITE/CONTEXT

The Nancy metropolitan area is part of the Meurthe valley landscape: a major river system at the bottom of the valley, bordered by discontinuous hillsides opening onto wooded plateaus and agricultural plains. Historically, the city of Nancy and the surrounding villages were set up at a distance from the marshes and floodwaters
of the Meurthe, while craftsmen, boatmen and market gardeners settled along the water’s edge. During the industrial revolution, the digging of the canal from the Marne to the Rhin and the arrival of the railroads led to the establishment of major industrial facilities on the banks of the Meurthe.
The second half of the 20th century was marked by the advent of the car - between bypasses and expressways - as factories withdrew and freight railroads were dismantled. The creation of the Californie district - on the site of the former Jarville blast furnaces - and the later construction of a shopping center on the former Saint-Georges railroad line, bear witness to these changes. The natural environment and hydrographic network have also been reshaped, with work to reshape the Meurthe river and the burial of several streams.
At the gateway to the old town, classified as a Site Patrimonial Remarquable, the Europan site stretches along the Marne au Rhin canal in the communes of Nancy and Jarville-la-Malgrange. On a metropolitan and local scale, this historic suburb appears as a city gateway and in-between-city area, cut off by the ring road and its interchange: flows and infrastructures act as separations rather than links between neighborhoods and residents.
The Grand Nancy metropolitan area and the towns of Nancy and Jarville want to restore the unity of this area in transition. The aim is to decompartmentalise parts of the city by restoring social and environmental continuity. The project is designed to enhance the heterogeneous urban heritage and work in harmony with the infrastructure. It also aims to create a high quality urban and landscape environment, recovering the natural ground and imagining a new relationship between the city and the canal.

QUESTIONS TO THE COMPETITORS

From the Californie district in Jarville to the edge of Nancy city centre, the site under consideration includes several opportunities for intervention. With the idea of resourcing social, landscape and ecological dynamics, the questions raised can be grouped under the headings :
Thresholds. How can we strengthen the social and economic dynamics of this metropolitan gateway? How can we overcome the effects of boundaries and perimeters, and create new porosities and accessibility between large urban areas? How do we deal with inherited infrastructures?
Links. How can we rediscover links and places between contrasting neighbourhoods that bear witness to different eras? How can new interfaces be created? How can we open up isolated areas and create new routes through the city?
Resurgences. How can water be revealed in the landscape and the urban imagination (buried streams,
a river kept at a distance, a canal to be re-enchanted)? How can we reveal the natural and hydrographic base? How can we enhance the value of plants and horticultural know-how?
Reactivation. How can we reinvest built heritage to be recycled, natural heritage to be enhanced, urban and social memories to be revived? How can we bring water back into the city? How can we reactivate uses in contact with water and restore qualities to the land?