ZAC Seine Masterplan Paris
Location: Paris
Client: EPA-ORSA
Status: Competition entry 2012
Team: Villes & Paysages, Egis France
Scale: 37 Ha (4,500 homes)
Baca have developed plans to maximize the potential of a site at risk of flooding on the River Seine, in central Paris.
The 37ha site forms part of the larger 300ha Ardoines development project, the largest and most significant development operations in France. Baca have teamed up with French counterparts atelier Villes & Paysages, and Egis France, bringing together local expertise and international knowledge.
The ZAC Seine Gare Vitry has been designed with water and nature at its heart. A thriving mix of uses will be created around blue/green ways and corridors to create a unique and economically vibrant new quarter, overlooking the River Seine. The masterplan was developed to maintain and encourage the economic sector, whilst allowing for significant development for over 6.5 million sq ft of habitable space.
The strategy devised a logical and hierarchical approach to flooding: locating land uses in accordance to vulnerability and providing a system of safe havens and access routes, without requiring costly development and defence measures. These also help to reduce flood-risk to surrounding neighbourhoods.
Waterways link each of the nodes, as a reminder of the riverside location and a guide to the next node. These rills, swales, paths and pools form a navigation and way finding mechanism, leading inhabitants across the site. This aquatic framework doubles as part of a sustainable drainage system, slowing the flow of rainfall and filtering run off before it enters the watercourse.
The waterways converge at the nodes to form aquatic features (rain squares, fountains, mirror ponds, flood parks), bringing the riparian environment to the surface.
Water is accommodated on the site in a clearly managed and controlled way, which is safe, incremental and allows the continuity of daily life even in extreme floods.
The space for water is in competition with high-density development, amenity space, space for renewable power provision, and transport demands. An integrated technical solution was developed to tackle a number of constraints, such as flood risk and contamination, simultaneously.