Whatever Happened to the Garden City?

NASRIN SERAJI WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE GARDEN CITY?

DESIGN FOLIO FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG Content

4 Project Details 6 Summary of the Work and its Significance, Originality, and Rigor 17 Originality 24 Rigor 28 Significance 32 Dissemination and Evidence of Peer Review 40 Bibliography 42 Appendix

Project Details

Author Nasrine Seraji AADIPL FRIBA Practice Atelier Seraji Architectes & Associés Title What Ever Happened to the Garden City? The Tremelière Garden Villages Output Infrastructure, Landscape Function Landscape and urban strategies for 65 hectares of agricultural land Practical Completion Phase One, 2017; Phase Two, anticipated completion 2020 Client Commune du Rheu, Rennes Metropole , Territoire and Archipel Habitat

4 Funding Body The City of Le Rheu, Territoire and Rennes Metro- pole Budget First Phase 4 Million Euros (landscaping, road and parking infrastructure and distribution of flood ba- sins. ***the budget of the housing is not included in the municipality’s budget) Area / Size 62 hectares (divided into four phases) including the Humid Zone (Non ædificandi) Contractor Main contractor: Eiffage Construction Contributing partners Neuveux Rouyer (Landscape Architects only at competition stage) SETUR (Roads, Networks and Services- smart city engineering)

1 Overall view of the first phase of the Garden City 5 from the North towards the city of Le Rheu Summary of the Work and its Significance, Originality, and Rigor

Whatever Happened to the Garden City? is a unique design and research project that proposes a new strategic plan for Le Rheu, a town of 7,600 inhabitants situated in the region of Île et Vilaine in north-western France. It was developed in the 1960s as an alternative plan by the French urban planner Gaston Bardet, who was a fierce critic of Le Corbusier and follower of Ebenezer Howard’s ideas of the “Garden City.” Our project expands upon his initial vision for cities composed of a more humanist rigour and structure, including public and cultural shared facilities as well as four major public parks of various themes.

6 7 Our strategic plan, awarded through an international competition, builds upon the prophecies of Bardet and imagines a new town that incorporates landscape as a structural device for city planning. As chief architects and urban planners of the town, we have developed a ten- year plan that proposes a new urban

8 extension through a “concerted open method” of design—one that will include spontaneous urban growth generated by specific economic and demographic constraints within the pre-existing town and its rural periphery. This method led to a concerted project and its appropriation by the public. The strategic urban plan was implemented through the construction of 450 housing units completed in 2018. More generally, the project has stimulated a rediscovery of the work of Gaston Bardet, his ideas on social urbanism, his writings, and the wealth of research he produced based on the work he did on the town. Following our proposed interventions, the town was registered as a “Cité Jardin”, with a registered ecological sector/ corridor safe guarding rare species passage on the northern part of the site as well as ensuring a humid corridor/ zone in case of drought. It currently forms the core of a new “Plan Local d’Urbanisme” which has transformed the regional policies, urban, and landscape regulations of the town of Le Rheu.

10 11 The community’s understanding of the proposed actions has been largely improved by the concertation methods we used for planning. Our proposal has been exhibited at a range of venues and locations, including the Town Hall of Le Rheu, and at the forum des “Projets Urbains” at the Palais des Congrés at Porte Maillot, Paris. It has been reviewed in a dozen of popular local and regional journals as well as professional magazines, including Place publique, Amc, and Le Moniteur.

12 13 14 15 2 450 housing units - First Village of the Garden City Pour que ce projet soit un sucCEs, nous devons oublier nos habitudes, faire preuve Le macro-lot n°1 doit d’imagination et de donner le “la” pour le pragmatisme ... futur quartier de la TREmelIEre. Il doit Etre exemplaire en terme d’architecture mais Egalement en terme de proCEdure.

Le mardi 15 février dans les locaux de TERRITOIRE, Nasrine Seraji prend alors la parole, rappelle les grands enjeux de ce projet Monsieur le Maire lance lʼatelier n°1. et précise le déroulement de cette première journée dʼatelier.

Pour commencer, une visite sur place est organisée. A lʼissue de la visite, un plan de travail est La météo clémente permet à chacun de mesurer les potentiels de ce site. établi pour les 2 ateliers suivants.

3 Workshops with municipal and client teams 16 Puis chacun des architectes présentent ses réflexions sur la thématique choisie lors de lʼatelier n°1. Originality

• The method of consultation (concerted workshops) and the tools used (large scale dynamic models, graphic storyboards) have proven to effectively communicate with the clients, the municipality, and the public allowing an important contribution to knowledge in community based planning and architecture. • The transformation of political and social instruments in urban planning.

Usually, in urban planning, architects/ urban planners produce a master plan which is then endorsed by the various decision makers (Mayor, elected members of the municipal government, the clients, the public

17 associations). In the Le Rheu project, the process of approval was authorship by the stakeholder’s appropriation of the project. For the first time in its history, a small town of 8000 inhabitants were given the choice to select what type of strategic planning they would undertake. Following a series of workshops and ateliers involving local developers, housing societies, landlord associations, other selected architects, local authorities, and the elected members of the town hall, we developed a plan that incorporated the views of the community. This step ensured the designers, the governing bodies, the funding association,s and the users to all be involved in planning (community based planning) and appropriating the project

18 Le 5 avril 2011, au Domaine de Cicé Blossac à Bru se déroule le troisième et dernier atelier de réflexion pour le macro-lot n°1.

Cette journée de travail permet de synthétiser lʼensemble des études menées par les architectes et valider un certains nombres de principes qui guideront les différents acteurs du macro-lot n°1.

Imbrications collectifs et intermédiaires - 1:200

Principe du stationnement - 1:200

Imbrication du paysage et de lʼinfrastructure - 1:200

Vue de lʼaccès au parc ... depuis la montée des Tilleuls.

Espace ludique

19 Proposition intégrant un équipement public. almost as the plan’s authors. In adherence to Bardet’s argument that through participatory design modes, “the

20 urban planner is hence no longer the one who constructs a plan but the one who instructs it.” (Bardet 1945).

21 Research Questions

• How can the Garden City Venez les of early 20th Century be enfants, allons transformed to the Ecological faire une City of the 21st Century? promenade dans • How can existing landscapes les jardin structure an urban plan? suspendus ... • Can architectural types be inspired by their landscape context and not the contrary (landscape decorating architecture). • How planning and architecture can involve and include the population, municipality, and the funding bodies as collaborators of the urban planning team? (community planning)

Vue plongeante depuis un logement vers les jardins supendus. Venez les enfants, allons faire une promenade dans les jardin suspendus ...

4 Vue plongeante depuis un logement vers les jardins supendus. 23 An extract of the graphic novel presented to the public Rigor

• The system of concerted urbanism is robust, producing a rigorous method of development • Analytical, discursive, descriptive, and hypothetical scripting investigations • Fabrication of 3-D additive models as well as specific drawings (scales), interviews, and workshops were conducted from inception to completion.

As a participative process, the project implied working with a variety of methods and stakeholders. Meetings, workshops, and debates were held at three scales, with specific representations. The meetings (four in total in a four-month period) were held between the architects 24 chosen through an open competition system, the urban planners (ourselves), the funding bodies, the municipality, and the mayor. Following which a plenary meeting of all the elected representatives of the municipality would take part in a twice four-hour workshop and finally and twice a year an open public lecture and debate with the citizens. • Physical additive large-scale models allowed for a consistent base for discussion. These models also allowed for every participant to fully understand the scale of interventions.

25 5 Book One page extracts 26 • Three comprehensive books recorded our research, the archival material, and the proposals to be shared by all participants. • The drawings were of three types: Manga graphic novels, sectional axonometrics for ease of understanding of programme superimpositions as well as isometrics and scenario perspective sketches. These drawings described and enabled the public to comprehend and not feel alienated by architectural drawings. • Every presentation was introduced through a set of studies and precedents that either served as concrete examples or possible points of departure.

27 Significance

The project’s significance lies in its connection to the ideas of Gaston Bardet and their roots in Ebenezer Howard’s concept of the Garden City. Our research furthers this historical discourse by suggesting that landscape and geographical conditions of the site needs to be the structuring device of new urban development. The research is also influenced by the ideas and concepts of Rem Koolhaas on the city, specifically “What Ever Happened to Urbanism?” a text in SMLXL. This reading initiated us to suggest that the hybrid of landscape and urbanism will plausibly be the future of the rural.

28 What Ever Happened to the Garden City is therefore a critical and prospective landscape-urban plan for the town of Le Rheu.

29 It proposes that 62 hectares of virgin agricultural land be developed into an Ecological Garden City with the capacity of 1200 housing units, which could increase the population by 50%. As the town is only 20 km away from the historical university city of Rennes, it has also eased the problem of housing shortages in the region without resorting to suburbanisation. The project has been qualified as a model to prevent the suburbanisation of rural areas at the periphery of small towns. In 2004, our practice had won a competition in Penang, Malaysia, around this revised, hybrid notion of the garden city and the metropolis. Proposing a new kind of metropolitan garden city demonstrating the potential to redefine planning models not only in France, but in other parts of the world, particularly 30 the dense high-rise vertical cities of South-east Asia.

6 Programmatic diagram for the city of Penang

7 Detail model of landscape voids in podium buildings 31 Dissemination and Evidence of Peer Review

Chapuis, Jean-Yves. ‘Rennes: La Ville archipel et son corollaire : a Ville des proximités’. Annales des Mines – Responsabilité et Environnement 4:52 (2008), pp.37 – 43.

Chenut, Jean-Luc (ed.). ‘Le future quartier de la Trémelière’. Le magazine D’information de la Ville de Le Rheu no. 47 (Avril 2010), pp.11.

Coulom, Jean-Christophe. ‘La dynamique structurante des sports de nature pour les territoires urbains. Le cas Palois.’. PhD thesis, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, Pau, 2014.

32 Defawe, Jean-Philippe.). ‘Au Rheu, la cité-jardin se réinvente’. Le Moniteur, 3 Feb 2017. Accessed: 14 March, 2019. Available at: https://www.lemoniteur. fr/article/au-rheu-la-cite-jardin-se- reinvente.523829.

33 Haddad, Yaël. ‘Au Rheu, la cité-jardin se réinvente’. Le Moniteur, 4 July, 2011.

Ouest France. (2013). ‘Nasrine Seraji : « C’est le paysage qui donne la structure à la ville »’. Ouest France, 30th Sept, 2013. Accessed: 14 Mar 2019. Available at: https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/ rennes-35000/nasrine-seraji-cest-le- paysage-qui-donne-la-structure-la- ville-1345148.

Ouest France. ‘Salle de danse et sale de proximité, deux équipements inaugurés’. Ouest France, 7 Sep, 2015. Accessed: 14 Mar 2019. Available at: https://www. ouest-france.fr/bretagne/le-rheu-35650/ salle-de-danse-et-salle-de-proximite- deux-equipements-inaugures-3672107

34 8 Architectural World Magazine extract of publication featuring the project

35 9 Comparative study of public spaces in the city of Le Rheu Exhibitions (Selected):

2009 Dazibao d’architecture , Gallerie d’architecture 2010 Tonji University, Shanghai 2011 Rouen School of Architecture

Lectures (Selected):

2018 Urban planning Bureau of Shenzhen, Cities of the Past, cities of the future and the predicament of the country side. 2016 How Soon is Now? Australian Institute of Architects National Architecture Conference, Adelaide 2015 Workshop on Rurality and Conservation, Songyang, China 2014 Workshop on Urbanism and rurality, Le Rheu, France

36 2013 Workshop on Urban Developments and Planning Strategies, Pau, France In Praise of Cities: Development without Urbanisation, Lecture tour in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong Future Cities: Dreams, Nightmares or Opportunities for a New Operating System. MIT, USA Architecture and It’s Double, Université de Montréal, Canada What Ever Happened to the Garden City?, Le Rheu, France Espaces partagés, Utopies et nécessités, Bayonne, France

37 2012 Workshop on Urbanism and Tourism, Mashad, Iran 2009 Towards a Well-Tempered Architecture, Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment, Paris 2006 École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris Pan-American Architecture Biennale, Quito, Ecuador Faculty of Architecture Landscape and Design, University of Toronto, Canada School of Architecture, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada L’urbanisme et sa commande, School of Architecture, Marne-la-Vallée, France 2005 Architecture Urbanism, House of Artists, Tehran, Iran Urbanism/Landscape/Strategies site, program, infrastructure and the question of time, Rice University, Paris

38 39 Bibliography

Frey, Jean-Pierre. ‘Gaston Bardet, Darris, Gérard. ‘L’héritage de théoricien de l’urbanisme « Gaston Bardet au Rheu’. Place Culturaliste ». Revue Urbanisme Publique (Septembre-octobre no. 319 (2001), pp.32-36. 2009), pp.134-140.

Cohen, Jean-Louis . ‘Gaston Fourier, Charles. Design for Bardet, un humanisme à visage Utopia: Selected Writings. urbain’ and ‘Entretien avec Studies in the Libertarian and Gaston Bardet’. Architecture, Utopian Tradition. New York: Mouvement, Continuité, no 44, Schocken,1971. (Février 1978), pp. 74-84. Gosselain, Pierre. ‘Gaston Cohen, Jean-Louis Cohen. ‘ Le Bardet, urbaniste méconnu’, Les «nouvel urbanisme» de Gastón Cahiers de l’Urbanisme no 63 Bardet»’. Le Visiteur, no 2 (1996), (Mars 2007), pp.13-31. p.134-147. Bardet, [Jean-]Gaston. ‘Métier Cohen, Jean-Louis. “Ville sur d’urbaniste”. Reconstruction, nº4 ville, le destin de Gaston Bardet”. (octobre-novembre 1945), pp.23- L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui, 30. Paris, no 265 (Octobre1989), pp78-82.

40 10 Howard, Ebenezer. To-morrow, a Peaceful Path to Real 41 Reform. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co.,Ltd., 1898. Appendix

Related publications by the designer:

Seraji, Nasrine. Un paysage révélé des jardins habité, 2012.

Books, journals, and references to the project written by others:

SuperTropic. ‘ASAA – Atelier Seraji Architectes & Associés’. Supertropic Architecture. Accessed: 14 Mar, 2019. Available at: https://supertropic. com/garden-city-le-rheu

Quinton, Maryse. ‘Le Mintaka, opération mixte, Le Rheu’. D’ARCHITECTURES, 25 Aug, 2017. Accessed: 14 Mar, 2019. Available at: https://www. darchitectures.com/le-mintaka- operation-mixte-le-rheu-a3647. html 42 Log. collectifs > 140-50 Log. intermédiaires > 50-55 Maisons groupées > 20-25 Maisons constructeurs > 15-20 Lots libres > 15-20

Intermédiaires Collectifs Collectifs Collectifs Collectifs Collectifs

Intermédiaires Maisons patios

Constructeurs Constructeurs Maisons groupées

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43Vue depuis lʼangle Nord-Est du macro-lot n°1. 11 Integration of water management of the site in landscape elements 44 Content: © Nasrin Seraji Graphic Design: Milkxhake

45 Ouest-France

5 mars 2010

Inscription du futur quartier dans la structure du grand paysage.

Le mercredi 3 mars 2010, à lʼinvitation de Monsieur le Maire, Nasrine Seraji présente dans le cadre dʼune réunion publique, le projet du quartier de la Trémelière. Pendant plus dʼune heure, les grands enjeux et principes de ce projet ambitieux pour la ville sont expliqués et débattus.

Deux jours plus tard, Ouest-France publie un article soulignant lʼadhésion “dʼune majorité de lʼauditoire qui semble être tombée sous le charme”.

46 Vue depuis le Nord du futur quartier de la Trémelière. Ouest-France

5 mars 2010

Inscription du futur quartier dans la structure du grand paysage.

Deux jours plus tard, Ouest-France publie un article soulignant lʼadhésion “dʼune majorité de lʼauditoire qui semble être tombée sous le charme”.

Vue depuis le Nord du futur quartier de la Trémelière. 47 48 12 450 housing units - Dance School , Seminar and 49 Conference Hall, and a Central Park of 7 hectres 50 51 The Department of Architecture educates students in an active culture of service, scholarship and invention. Uniquely situated at the crossroads of China and global influence, the Department takes the approach that design is best explored from a sophisticated understanding of both. With a multidisciplinary curriculum emphasizing technology, history and culture, students gain broad knowledge and skills in the management of the environmental, social, and aesthetic challenges of contemporary architectural practice. With opportunities for design workshops, international exchanges, and study travel, graduates of the Department of Architecture are well prepared for contribution to both international and local communities of architects and designers.