Green Infrastructure 2014 Group E - Case Study 3
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Rehabilitation of the urban center "Coeur de ville" in Montreuil-sous-bois, France:
Potential of Green Infrastructures for social benefits in suburban areas.
| Name | Urban center "Coeur de ville" | |
| Country | France | |
| City | Montreuil-sous-bois | |
| Authors | Lola de Vathaire | |
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Rationale: Why is this case interesting?
The rehabilitation of this large urban square surrounded by administrative buildings of the city of Montreuil in the periphery of Paris, should help improve social cohesion around the city center. In fact, Montreuil is a dormitory town, which had known an important development of low-cost residential areas to create accommodations very quickly for migrant workers from the French regions or from abroad during the twentieth century. In this kind of suburbs ran by communist majors, there were few economical and commercial activities. Urban planning were mostly answering questions regarding habitation and transportation, disregarding recreation and environmental protection. The good connections to Paris, the capital city caused a slowdown of social and cultural developments. The poor connections to other parts of Montreuil and to other suburbs impeded the increasing of property values.
In the past years, the destruction or renewing of buildings of the 50s-70s free some places in the city like on this quarter "coeur de ville" (heart of the city). Places with a lot of potential to create a local life for communities, improving quality of life and restoring some natural functions of nature.
Author's perspective
As a student of landscape architecture, working in Germany a land ahead in matter of sustainability and green infrastructure, I often though about the possibilities for this square and the waste of resources that anterior designs caused, as I was visiting my family in Montreuil.
After a new rehabilitation, two years ago, I was disappointed to see that important structures of the urban landscape were not integrated in the planning, wasting again a lot of potential to improve quality of life and landscape in this area.
I would like to use this exercise, to point out which methods and patterns contribute to urban heat island, greenhouse effect, etc and propose green infrastructure solutions in an integrative and adaptive design.
Landscape and/or urban context of your case
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Overview of Montreuil´s urban landscape from the still forested hills
- Biogeography:
Montreuil is situated in the Paris basin with a semi-oceanic, temperate climate. It can be dissociated in two parts because of the geological formation of the area it was built on. The nether city belongs to the valley of the Seine, a formal wetland characterized by impermeable clay soil. The upper city is built on three hills and benefits of drinking water sources and gypsum resources in a calcareous soil. Due to the urban development there is no reminds of the original flora and fauna as well as the wetland and forest, only post-industrial, semi-natural landscapes and parks created mostly on closed gypsum mines.
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Overview of topography and semi-natural parcs, examples of biodiversity in the "Beaumonts" parc.
- Historical urban development:
The city is called Montreuil because it was built around a monastery in the early middle-age. This first village knew a demographic and economic explosion after the construction of a new castle for the French royal court in Vincennes, 10km away. Since the XIVth century, Montreuil provided water, vegetable crops, wild games or livestock to Vincennes, Versailles then Paris. The resources of Montreuil are necessary for the capital, especially drinking water that always felt in Paris. That is why it was one of the first city in France to be industrialized and to know a modern urban development in order to supply parisians quickly. Since the early 1900s, the center of the town is connected to Paris with public transportation like busses and trams offering cheap land to construct residential building in masses. The city hall, which is managed since 1935 by the communist party organized wide constructions project to create as much social habitations as possible on the little space of the city in the 50s-70s. Some decades later, the state of this housing stock was already miserable. The poor quality of live of the inhabitants caused dissatisfaction and even riots like in other suburbs near Paris.
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1770
1907
1960
1970
- Culture and cityscape:
The inhabitants of Montreuil were farmers and workers as reflected by the statues of the sculptor Gilbert: La Jardinière et l'Ouvrier (1944). Today, they represent more than 90 nationalities and a quarter of them shuttle to work in the capital. Montreuil is known to be the first city with a cinema studio in France and for its gypsy community with strong cultural traditions (Gypsy Jazz). In 1900 emerged a first middle-class which built mansion house inspired by the parisian style. In the 80s, a community of intellectuals and artists discovered this historical city in the suburbs. Since then, the village flair of Montreuil and the low rent/sale prices attract parisian workers looking for one of the last houses of the region (20% of the habitation stock in houses).
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Mansion house built in 1900
La Jardinière et l'Ouvrier (1944)
Flyer for a festival of Gypsy jazz representing Django Reinhardt
- Current plannings and developments:
Transportation: plans to improve quick connections to the other suburbs as well as the connections from Paris to non-central areas in Montreuil.
Housing: renovation plans for the buildings of the 50s-70s, opening of kindergarten
Commercial: creation of a commercial center for the quarter ""coeur de ville"
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Project of extension of public transportation in Montreuil
PLan for the project "coeur de ville"
- Illustrations
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Analytical drawings
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Green Infrastructure benefits for this site
Look again at the multiple benefits of green infrastructure - what could be achieved in your site and which are most relevant?
Potential for multifunctionality
Green infrastructure has typically multiple functions. What could be achieved for your site in this respect?
Projective drawings
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- And how could it look like in 10-15 years?
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Summary and conclusion
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Image Gallery
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References
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