SUSTAINABLE NEIGHBOURHOOD GROWS FROM DISUSED RAILWAY

The international competition for the redevelopment has been won by SLA and Biecher Architectes. Located in the 18^th arrondissement, the new 3.7-hectare site will pay homage to the former railway site by preserving its industrial heritage while injecting new functionality to the underused area. The mixed-use masterplan will include housing for 1000 residents — half of which will be for social housing, 20 percent for intermediate and the remainder for private housing — as well as 13,800 square metres of office space, new school buildings, an industrial design incubator for SME, a nine-screen cinema complex, urban farming areas and plenty of restaurant and retail space.

“The Ordener-Poissonniers project will act as a generous green gift to the city of Paris,” says Rasmus Astrup, a partner in SLA. “In the transformation of the old post-industrial railway site, we have especially focused on the values and the qualities we want the new development to give back to the neighbourhood. By combining the strong industrial character with innovative nature-based designs and public ecosystem services we create a new standard for nature in Paris – where nature is everywhere and where humans, plants, and animals can live and flourish together.

“All is designed to make biodiversity, natural amenities, sustainability and post-industrial heritage the starting point of the entire development of Ordener-Poissonniers – a radical way of literally growing a new neighbourhood out of the existing Parisian soil.

To minimise the development’s environmental footprint in the long run, the buildings will be optimised for wind and solar conditions. Other sustainable features include photovoltaic panels mounted onto the roofs, planting plans that promote biodiversity and the use of natural materials and prefabricated low-carbon concrete floors.

 “We will create a new form of urban ecosystem that will be entirely carbon neutral and extremely energy efficient through its bioclimatic masterplan,” says Christian Biecher, founder of Biecher Architectes. “All roofs will consist of innovative solar tiles, de facto turning the whole neighbourhood into one big solar power plant. Free heat from the local data centre is extracted and used in the buildings. The project will have an exemplary environmental footprint above 94 percent – with heating costs for the area amongst the cheapest in Paris.”

The project aims to be completed in 2024.

Images by SLA