Living Day-To-Day with the River Seine TOPIC DOCUMENT – SEINE 2019
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Extension of the call for applications Call for applications Submission until May 19, 2019 International workshop of urban planing 6th - 8th july 2019 - Paris Region Living day-to-day with the river Seine TOPIC DOCUMENT – SEINE 2019 LES ATELIERS INTERNATIONAUX DE MAITRISE D’ŒUVRE URBAINE DE CERGY-PONTOISE Le Verger, 1 rue de la Gare 95020 Cergy-Pontoise CEDEX Contact for les Ateliers: [email protected] Contact for the 2019 workshop: [email protected] Tél : +33 1 34 41 93 91 PILOTS PERMANENT TEAM Benoît Vernière Pierre-André Perissol, President Delphine Baldé Christine Lepoittevin, Director ASSISTANT PILOT Véronique Valenzuela, Project Di- rector Manon Colle Juliette Lombard, Management Assistant Khadijatou Sene, Administrative As- sistant 2 TOPIC DOCUMENT – SEINE 2019 LIVING DAY-TO-DAY WITH THE RIVER SEINE THE EMERGENCE OF A COMPLETE CITY SOUTH OF THE PARIS METROPOLITAN AREA TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION P.4 CHAPTER 1. A RECENT URBAN HISTORY, ON BOTH SIDES OF THE SEINE P.5 CHAPTER 2. A NEW CONURBATION IN THE PARIS METROPOLITAN AREA P.8 CHAPTER 3. THE VALLÉE DE LA SEINE: WHAT ROLE DOES IT PLAY IN THE GRAND PARIS SUD, WHAT URBAN DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY SHOULD IT UNDERTAKE? P.8 HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE WORKSHOP P.10 APPLICATION FORM P.12 3 TOPIC DOCUMENT – SEINE 2019 TOPIC PRESENTATION For many years, rivers did not play a and quality of life, while reinforcing central role in urban development: its social bonds. indeed, they were limited to a pro- Numerous planning stakeholders ductive or industrial function. To- have clearly identified the planning day, calls for projects involving riv- potential of rivers, and yet the syn- ers are multiplying across the world, ergy creation between urbanised reflecting a change of perception and riverside areas is still far from of the relationship between town realising its full potential. The herit- and river. age value of a city-river interface is At a time when environmental still often unrecognised, so there is challenges are very much in the an urgent need to re-think this inter- news, resulting in commitments and face with a view to providing the objectives, riverside cities with their inhabitants with new uses, allowing river-related activities can undeni- them to regain access to the ably make major contributions to riverbanks, facilitating river crossings shaping the urban ecosystem. and developing economic activi- ties. Given that some programmes In addition, rivers can help meet may give rise to conflicting uses, the current need to assert the dis- the question is how to reconcile tinctive identities of metropolitan economic and ecological inter- areas in relation to each other. A ests? Another key issue facing the river is much more than a mere ur- development of river towns and ban façade: it is a vector for en- cities is managing flood risk. hancing a territory’s attractiveness TERRITORY COVERED: SOUTHERN GREATER PARIS The Southern Greater Paris area is such, which crosses this territory of an agglomeration of 23 municipali- 350,000 inhabitants, has not played ties in the south-east of the Paris-Île- a part in structuring its develop- de-France Region spread over two ment. Hence two questions: first, counties (“départements”) through today, how can we give the river which the river Seine runs. This area Seine a role to play in the Greater has seen strong urban growth over Southern Paris area? Second, what the last 50 years, thereby contrib- planning strategy is required to turn uting to the development and the Seine valley with its riverbanks structuring of the Paris metropolitan into a genuine agglomeration? area. However, the river Seine as 4 DOCUMENT SUJET – SEINE 2019 1. A RECENT URBAN HISTORY, ON BOTH SIDES OF THE SEINE The study area is located in the départements (counties) of Essonne and Seine-et-Marne and corresponds to the Grand Paris Sud (Greater Southern Paris) conurbation, which was created on 1 January 2016 and which includes 23 municipalities. THE DEVELOPMENT OF GRAND PARIS SUD IN PARALLEL WITH THE GREATER METROPOLI- TAN AREA This territory has experienced a organise the rapid development rapid and significant urban and provide residents with public development since the late 1960s. It facilities and jobs close to their hosts two former new towns — Evry homes. and Sénart — which were created The development of this territory as part of the 1965 Paris Region was centred mainly around these Master Plan for Urban Planning and two urban centres and occurred in Development (SDUARP), the main an extremely rapid manner objective of which was to structure (transitioning from rural areas with a the intense growth of the Parisian single city, Corbeil-Essonnes, in the metropolitan area. These new 1960s to an urban area of 351,608 towns were thereby created to inhabitants 50 years later). 5 TOPIC DOCUMENT – SEINE 2019 Urbanisation therefore developed Today, this territory has an extensive on the plateaus, via major transportation network connected infrastructure projects (construction it to the capital and the entire Île- of housing, facilities, services, etc.), de-France Region: direct access to that relied primarily on a the A6, A5, N104; connections to coordinated network of major national roads; 17 RER transportation infrastructures and stations; high-service bus lines; a which were designed on a regional planned TGV station in Lieusaint- scale. Moissy; etc. TRANSPORTATION AND TERRITORIAL NETWORK SOURCE: GRAND PARIS SUD 6 TOPIC DOCUMENT – SEINE 2019 The Vallée de la Seine now acts as a border between two urban centres and two large residential areas: o The left bank was the main site GRAND PARIS SUD IN NUMBERS of development from the 1960s to the 1980s (large housing 350,000 INHABITANTS, RANKED 5TH IN complexes in the 1960s and THE ÎLE-DE-FRANCE REGION IN TERMS OF 1970s, new town NUMBER OF INHABITANTS neighbourhoods in the 1980s). 222.2 KM2 Today, urban policies aim to 23 MUNICIPALITIES ACROSS 2 rebuild the city in its own right, DEPARTEMENTS: SEINE-ET-MARNE AND integrating an approach of ESSONNE diversity and bridging the urban 51 % OF TERRITORY COVERED IN divides linked to transportation AGRICULTURAL, FOREST AND NATURAL infrastructure. AREAS 49 % OF TERRITORY COVERED IN o The right bank, home to the URBANISED SPACES (OF WHICH 17% IS new town of Sénart, is DEDICATED TO HOUSING) characterised by a more recent MAJOR TRANSPORTATION AXES: RER D, and more residential A5, A6, FRANCILIENNE MOTORWAY, T ZEN development (61% of the area BUS NETWORK is composed of single-family 35 KM FROM PARIS homes). 15 KM FROM ORLY AIRPORT 25 KM OF THE SEINE 31 KM OF SEINE RIVERBANKS 7 TOPIC DOCUMENT – SEINE 2019 2. A NEW CONURBATION IN THE PARIS METROPOLITAN AREA Today, this territory presents many The creation of a single inter- of the characteristics of a large municipal structure, the Grand Paris conurbation, whether by its size Sud Urban Authority, responds (220 km², 350,000 inhabitants) or its directly to this desire to create a level of facilities and services “complete city” while also defining (university, hospital centre, national the territory’s specific trajectory theatre, etc.). However, its rapid within the Paris metropolitan area. development, the administrative This inter-municipal authority has boundaries that previously recently begun a broad reflection traversed its borders (2 on its future and its overall strategy. départements, 23 municipalities, Its objective is to define the links or several inter-municipalities until bonds that must be (re)discovered 2016) explain its heterogeneity as and created to become a well as the fact that this territory is complete and vibrant conurbation not yet perceived as a city in its within the Paris metropolitan area. own right. 3. THE VALLÉE DE LA SEINE: WHAT ROLE DOES IT PLAY IN THE GRAND PARIS SUD, WHAT URBAN DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY SHOULD IT UNDERTAKE? The objective of the workshop is to Nonetheless, it is distinguished by its contribute to this general reflection striking natural qualities: its by focusing on an important but, distinctive hillsides and vegetation until recently, relatively create a clear and recognisable unaddressed area: the Vallée de la landscape. It is precisely this Seine. picturesque character that led to its banks being listed as “Rives de The area is fairly disconnected from Seine” in 1976, with the intention of the main urban centres (except protecting them from urban Corbeil-Essonnes, which has a pressure. Eleven (11) of the 23 degree of riverside presence) and, municipalities of the Grand Paris in a broader sense, has played no Sud are currently covered by this significant role in urban planning label. and development strategies until recently. Although several distinct areas can be identified, it is an overall natural tonality that dominates the territory 8 TOPIC DOCUMENT – SEINE 2019 through the presence of It is now a question of defining a recreational spots, agricultural strategy specific to this area. areas at the base of the valley and residential zones on the wooded Should the river and its surroundings hills. be considered an active part of local life or a link to other areas of Several industrial and port areas the capital? What development exist, particularly in the north and strategies should be adopted that around Évry-Courcouronnes and will fully contribute to the vitality Corbeil-Essonnes (near the N104 and identity of this territory? What ring road). The narrowness of the role(s) can the Vallée de la Seine valley and the relative remoteness play in the future of this territory: of major transportation that of a leisure area, a large urban infrastructure make these areas, park, a transportation hub? often quite old, appear to be exceptions. For example, in Ris- Orangis, the former site of the The Vallée de la Seine is subject to Alcohol Docks has been various and even contradictory transformed into an eco- objectives: as an instrument for neighbourhood during the course economic development, a of the last decade.