Knitting a common community space in Paris

Overview

Paris, the capital of France has been inhabited since the beginning of the 3rd Century BC along the banks of river Seine. It started as the hub of the trading centre which eventually led to its growth as a metropolis.

By the mid-18th Century, it became densely populated with a cityscape that had not changed since the middle ages. Napoleon III hired Hausmann for one of the largest urban transformations. Consequently, he built the first transport network encircling Paris, transforming it from a medieval town to an industrial centre of the 19th Century.

This railway network, known as Petite Ceinture, initially made for transporting goods, functioned for over 70 years (1862 to 1934), making a tremendous impact on the development of industry during this course. During the overlap of a better urban transportation network, the existing railway line Petite Ceinture encircling the city became defunct as people opted for a faster option. And by the year 1934, it was officially shut. It turned the railway line space and stations into urban voids.

Brief

Petite Century is just one of the obsolete areas of Paris. Defunct Industrial towns, warehouses, malls etc have a similar fate in many urban areas once their use is completed. Yet, due to its prime location, it still drives the interests of the residents and localities living around. The linearity of space makes it a challenge for urban planners and designers at large to utilize the area without uprooting the essence of railway tracks, i.e. the purpose of its existence. 

It expects the designers to explore a new breed of public spaces. The place and its reminiscence itself weave a story and nostalgia for people, giving them a glimpse of history 150 years old.

Architecture intervention aims to create a public space for transient activities (marketplace) and a cohesive community platform. It would enhance the existing infrastructure filling the urban void that has been existing for decades. Conclusively, the project would establish a common physical space between the old metropolis and the expanding city. 

The challenge here was to design and augment a part of the public space by converting it into a community platform near the historical Ornano St. which has a pre-existing garden and Restaurant (Le Recyclerie and Jardins du Ruisseau) that attracts visitors and local commuters looking for a local collaborative area.

The jury for the competition consisted of esteemed designers, professionals and academicians from around the world. The Lead Jurors for the competitions were as follows: 

Manuel Zornoza, Principal Architect, Latitude Architectural Group, Spain

Rachel Luchetti, Principal, Luchetti Krelle, Australia

Miguel Angel Lira, Founding Partner & Co-Director, lira.velasco.arquitectos, Mexico

Fuensanta Nieto, Founding Partner, NIETO SOBEJANO ARQUITECTOS, Spain

Andrus Kõesaar, Partner, KOKO architects, Estonia

Some of the Best of competition projects are:

Winning Project: Bend It

By: Rogerio Carvalheiro, Neil Maass, Matthew Cavender & Yoko Chow

Description: The more dense our urban environments become, the more valuable open and natural settings become.  This struck me first when reviewing how the adjacent community has appropriated the abandoned train route to commune with nature and neighbors in ways that are informal, organic, creative, and productive. 

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Runner - Up: Community Platform

By: Colleen Tuite, Bryony Roberts & Sadie Imae

Description: The Community Platform bridges the existing tracks of the Petite Ceinture. The project connects both sides of the tracks to create an inclusive shared space for markets and performances interspersed with landscaping around exposed tracks. Above, a lightweight roof canopy spans the public space, unifying the two sides and offering shelter from the elements.

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Runner - Up: CARBON

By: Kévin Petitjean, Ana Maria, Satrustegui Martin & Valentine Bagot

Description: The concept highlights the creation of new spaces whose appropriation is completely free for all visitors. With this structure completely renewable and recyclable, the project can be seen as a symbolic link that brings together several generations and urban universes.

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Honorable Mention: Peripherique in Movement

By: Cem Ozbasaran, Elif Parmaksız & Sunay altıntepe

Description: A design proposal aiming to expand along the peripherique starting from Petite Centurie where it will act as a starting point between the end of the existing flux zones and the start of the new flux areas, extending along the beltway (peripherique) and, creating enough momentum to induce the circular movement.

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Honorable Mention: Le MONSTRE de Clignancourt

By: Johan Steenberg

Description: While the metropolis of Paris is reaching for the skies to accomodate an increasing population and urban density, it is distanced from the soils on which it is founded. The monster reveals the abnormality of the urban voids and the creatures living in it, by providing light in the photosynthetic spectrum and shelter for inclusive activities to take place.

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Honorable Mention: Vector

By: Ho Wan Chiu, Cheuk Hei Ryan Poon & Jeremy Chan

Description: Our design intervention comes from the compression of time and spatial transactions outside the train and imposes the idea of ‘vector’ into a cargo dimension. The new lateral experience for the visitors becomes a remembrance to the historic railway, establishing a new relationship between the Ornano station and the landscape along the rail.

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Honorable Mention: RailArches

By: Ruben Andersen

Description: The project seeks to enhance the void by framing it as a common ground for new conditions, maintaining the spirit as a time pocket within the changing urban fabric. Overgrown & patinated existing qualities which are preserved and captured by a new arcade-like structure, repeated and staggered through the site, creating a non-specific intervention.

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Honorable Mention: DESTINESIA

By:  Cansu Çelik & İshak Şimşek

Description: Nowadays, places where human interaction is intense are defined as public spaces. This interaction occurs both with the human and with the context in the process. Interaction in public spaces takes place within a process. Process, as well change, development, creation

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Honorable Mention: Collaboration in Urban Voids

By:  玺霖 王, 可欣 宋

Description: This proposal is an urban collaborative system that aims to establish modular spaces that connect people with different backgrounds in such a diverse city as Paris. Our project offers various activities and attracts communities to collaboration. It aims to revive the obsolete infrastructure of Petite Ceinture.

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People’s Choice: PARINESS

By: Surbhi Ghoghari

Description: The intention of PARINESS is to create happiness, peace, oneness and a healthy Society. People nowadays have lost the human connection/touch and are more dependent on any system or application to fulfill their needs at home. Pariness will make society happy and will create oneness joy among people.

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Editor’s Choice: Salut Paris

By: Ilyas TENOURI 

Description: Recycling and respect the site

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Editor’s Choice: METROPOLITAN SHELTER

By: Pabio Lombardo, Cristina Del Pozo, Sol Prieto, Àlvar Miralles & Elisabetta Nucera 

Description: The intervention interprets and enhances the spirit of the site. The aim is to create a place of "refuge" from the stress of the city, where urban life can take place at a slower pace while surrounded by nature. A place that allows for limitless arrangements of the space, and different "intensities", depending on the activity taking place.

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Editor’s Choice: Le passage

By: Elisha Thebaud 

Description: Urban and architectural redevelopment project of the old railway of La petite Ceinture, in North of Paris

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Editor’s Choice: Salut Paris

By: Alexia Nomikou

Description: The project is the work of a segmented volume reducing the envelope. Thanks to the openings this maximizes the interactions between interior and exterior. With the watchword “favor the use of reusable materials while leaving the rails and passage intact”, testimony to the history of the city.

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Organizer’s Choice: Rolly

By: Ge Zhou, Yuna Kim & Sean Kim

Description: The design aims to embrace both the linearity and existing infrastructure of the site by placing modular objects which can move across the tracks not only within the given site but across the whole Petite Ceinture.

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Discover the design brief here: https://uni.xyz/competitions/salute-paris/info/about

Discover the full results here: https://uni.xyz/competitions/salute-paris/entries

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