In May the jury of the” Grand Prix de l'Urbanisme” awarded the prize to the architect and urbanist François Grether.
Born in Dijon in 1941, François Grether worked for the Parisian Urbanism Agency as head of studies from 1970 to 1992. The jury announced that “during his time working for Apur, François Grether instigated a new approach to planning documents for urban and architectural projects, as well as to redefining urban wastelands while being attentive to the territories' equilibrium which was based on the quality of life and care for the landscape“.
Apart from participating in the drawing up of the big Parisian urbanism documents (Comprehensive Development Area Map -POS- in 1974 and Urban Development Guidelines -SDAU- in 1977) he led studies, from 1972 to 1978, on the redevelopment of the La Villette sector, prior to collaborating on the Planning Programme for the East of Paris. From 1987 to 1992, he was in charge of studies for the Left Bank, Mixed Development Zone – ZAC- -Seine Rive Gauche.
One can read about the ideas of this thinker and practitioner of the city in his various published works of the period:
- Paris Projet n°29 – Development of the Seine Left Bank sector
- Paris Projet n°27-28 – Developing East Paris
- Paris Projet n°15 -16 – La Villette: developing the old slaughterhouses and the canal embankments
Since 1992, he has been running his own agency. Among his current projects are the first phase of the Lyon Confluence ZAC, urban renovation of the northern districts of Amiens and the redevelopment of the Maine Embankment in Angers.
Apur and François Grether continue to collaborate, notably on the planning workshop for the western sector of the Clichy-Batignolles ZAC, which began on 20th June 2012 and is run jointly by François Grether as the architectural coordinator of the ZAC and Dominique Alba, the Director of Apur.
The official ceremony will take place in December when the Grand Prix will be presented to François Grether by Cécile Duflot, Minister of Equality of Territories and Housing.
