Blooming Square
Clichy La Garenne 

Paris, France
With: Lina Ghotmeh - Architecture


Clichy-la-garenne, once an entirely wooded territory before the 19th century, is now developing in the continuity of Greater Paris. Urban expansion engulfing unbuilt spaces, this project set out to develop a balance between urbanization and the protection of green spaces. It proves how architecture can be a vector of a rapprochement between man and nature.
 
From 1790 to 1850, the city of Paris underwent a first major expansion, in particular linked to the town planning departments led by Baron Haussmann and Napoleon III. Clichy, included in this development plan, is linked to Paris thanks to the development of large stations such as Saint-Lazare and main axes that are still present today.

Water as a structuring element of the territory - the Seine river, artery irrigating the Ile-de-France territory from the port of Le Havre, is an element that contributes to the identity of Greater Paris. Clichy-la-Garenne, at the gates of Paris, enjoys immediate proximity to the Seine which turns on itself upstream. This territory has seen ambitious projects, such as that of the portfroideville in the 16th century, and continues to be a major axis of project development, with in particular that of the seine metropolis, linking Le Havre - Rouen - Paris.

Water and green space make up the DNA of the site for this future “Blooming Square.” The art of the impressionists in the late 1800’s and relating urban expansion at the time gave depth to our research of the area and how to design a space that is truthful to the site, and the city.