Date. February 2020_May 2020_Semester 8
Location. Prés d'Arènes_Montpellier
Type. Urban planning_Public
Client. Municipality of Montpellier
Unit. Meter (m)
Exercise instructions: think of an urban planning project in the Prés d'Arènes area. Solo work.
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While visiting the south-eastern sector of Montpellier, my main observation was the lack of what I called "breathing sacks". Another observation is the fact that the urban space is very walled up and the sidewalks unpleasant to experience. These were the starting points for my search for potential breathing sacks capable of receiving a project. By "breathing sack" I mean meeting points, centers, reference points, spaces representing a break in the overall walled and fenced roads that one can experience in this sector.
I noted 3 potential project sites. They are abandoned or neglected spaces that each fall within different urban contexts. One is supposed to be the meeting point in an elderly, mainly pavilion neighbourhood (a covered market), another should be a reference point joining education, leisure and environmental relief (a park), the third is the reuse of these same walls (air filtrating walls) and the last is a break space operating on the existing. For the semester, I chose to develop the latter: La Rauze park.
Doing so allows me to tackle another issue which are skateparks in Montpellier. The city holds the label of Montpellier Extreme Sports Capital, which is hardly credible when we take a look at how few skateparks there are in the city (3 parks). This also instigates or encourages users to practice in the city's public spaces, thus creating tensions with residents.
Therefore the project is an initiative to be continued in the city for the increase of skateparks.
What's interesting about the La Rauze park is that it operates very well, as it is visited by families as well as sportspeople. It incorporates a sports complex compiling multiple sports equipments, for both collective and individual sports, as well as for martial arts. It is also close to the 4th tramway line, La Rauze tramway station. However, the entries are not easy to find.
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The project will serve as a better exposure to the park from Palavas avenue, as well as bringing it closer to the 4th tramway line's centre : the Garcia Lorca tram station.
It takes hold of plots that are currently either squatted, abandoned or lowly exploited. The extension will then cover 2,5 ha, enlarging the La Rauze park from 6,7 to 9,2 ha.
I offer to create a streetpark complex constituted by both indoor and outdoor parks taking place in the La Rauze park extension.
One of the special features of this new streetpark is the Docteur Jacques Fourcade avenue passing through it. As it is a well-travelled road, I chose not to suppress it but make it a one-way road; thus narrowing it. I also chose to pave it in order to create signage on the ground, allowing it to be distinguished from other roads and marking its belonging to the park. The link between the multiple parts of the new park and the existing one becomes the roads passing through.
The urban entries' signage translates onto the sidewalks leading the user from Garcia Lorca to the streetpark's west entry, using surfacing continued on site. It is also designed so that it facilitates the riders' wheels' flow without them bump onto non smooth grout.
The streetpark offers multiple access points allowing a great accessibility for neighbouring houses, hotels and potential future collective housings. The north access point is designed with Prés d'Arènes neighbourhood's mutation in mind, it currently opens on a hotel's parking lot, but it will offer an easy entry for the transformed future neighbourhood.
The park is intended to being very open both in a space and time definition, as it is open 24 hours daily, and the fence is generally 1 meter high, thus signifying a physical limit without it being a visual one.
This game of traditional limits' modification variates all along the streetpark's sequences; for a playful aspect accompanying the skatepark ...
... for a safety aspect accompanying the children's playground ...
... and for an appropriation aspect that finds place in the garden trays bordering the sidewalk near the neighbouring houses.
On top of the limits' game, there is a play of topography starting in the skatepark and following along the other park's spaces.
The park being so open, it becomes naturally part of the neighbourhood life that needs to be preserved by having classic elements like children's playground and a jeu de boules pitch; but also by integrating new aspects. The garden trays take an educational turn on top of having a convenience factor to it.
The open-air cinema becomes part of the nightlife with projections onto the building's facade.
The flagship of this project being the skatepark, it falls naturally within the different dimensions mentioned as it participates in the nightlife when the weather allows it, as well as the social life, educational and recreational.
Being a source of reluctance given its possible noise disturbance, it has been important to give careful consideration to acoustic. It is the main justification of the indoor park's building placement, as well as the resort to bowls and ditchs (negative topography) instead of a "street"-said structure (positive topography) in the outdoors.
Lastly, to add to the social dimension and primary needs of a sportsperson, a bistro is located on the indoor park's first floor, enabling the user to enjoy a different view of the park when being at canopy level.
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The building joins an ascent logic that also takes place in the neighbouring plot; where another extreme sports' program is developed : rock-climbing.
