Article by Christiane Blancot, Director of studies at the Apur, published in Traits d'Agence, a supplement of Traits Urbains N° 44 2010 / 2011
The consultation process launched by the Grand Paris project revealed the development potential of the Le Bourget Airport sector. In the light of this observation the elected representatives of the six communes involved asked the Apur to help them organise and pilot the development strategy studies, under a project management assistance contract.
A project management partnership for a shared vision.
The elected representatives of Le Bourget, Blanc-Mesnil, Bonneuil-en-France, Drancy, Dugny and La Courneuve have taken their future in hand by involving the major institutional and economic stakeholders : the Seine St Denis Regional Council -Conseil Général-, the Plaine de France public urban development establishment -EPA-, Paris Airports, the International Paris Air and Space Show, the City of Paris and the public group serving general interest and economic development -the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations- .
They commissioned the three teams of the architects Christian de Portzamparc, Roland Castro and Jean-Maire Duthilleul (AREP), all of whom took part in the Grand Paris Consultation, to elucidate the options for future developments of their territory, where a leading business airport, an exhibition centre and the Courneuve Park are all concentrated and where many different rail and road infrastructures intersect.
From January to July 2010, the three teams drew up a development strategy around three different specifications with : De Porzamparc in charge of the overall strategy, AREP of the transport and mobilities strategy and Castro focusing on the different development areas of the project.
This method entailed regular discussions between the teams and project management in the form of monthly workshops. At the same time, a steering committee, involving all the stakeholders, followed up the work every three months.
Through this method, a joint assessment was rapidly established for this area neglected by developers for forty years, criss-crossed by motorways and railways, fragmented between obsolete business parks, large areas of detached houses and isolated high rise housing estates and at the same time its future potential was revealed.
Northern gateway to the capital which is at present invisible, with exceptional but untapped locations already existing around the airport, large public spaces to be redefined, possible new polarities thanks to the combination of new public transport facilities, reorganisation of the territory by creating an urban structure with strong architectural, landscaping and amenity focal points of the development, such are the issues and ideas that have emerged.
Weighing up and being involved in the Grand Paris development project.
Whilst these studies were moving ahead, the public debate on the future, Grand Paris, public transport network was also being prepared. Two presentations were made to the Secretary of State for the Paris region, resulting in the validation of two train stations to be created serving the Le Bourget development pole.
The public debate took place between October 2010 and January 2011, when it became clear that Le Bourget was to be one of the eight metropolitan development poles. At the same time, the elected representatives of the six communes presented the results of the teams’ studies to the general public, using them as points to be considered during the debate.
The Apur's support of the project's management and architects
The Apur has played several roles in this study phase. Upstream, it defined the procedure for carrying out the studies. It then assisted their implementation by preparing the necessary documents for the teams (maps, socio-economic data and proofing of current and forthcoming projects, etc.) Following that it organised discussions with the various stakeholders, workshops and steering committees and drew up summaries to present these analyses, notably by means of a downloadable presentation.