Bruneseau Seine District, Paris

Launched by Semapa in March 2017, the 'Inventer Bruneseau' competition concerns the creation of a 100,000m2 neighbourhood destined to recreate a link between Paris and the eastern suburb of Ivry sur Seine, at the end of the Avenue de France and next to the Quai d'Ivry motorway interchange. The new district is a densely populated, built-up area immediately alongside Paris's boulevard périphérique ringroad, It is organised around a public space that extends the Avenue de France towards Ivry by passing beneath the périphérique. The Bruneseau Seine project proposes a coherent and harmonious architectural sequence, alternating very tall buildings with lower constructions along both this new axis and the Seine. It offers calm, generous and welcoming surroundings, as much for its residential programme as for the offices and retail. In the centre of the neighbourhood is a large hall beneath the périphérique, which houses a food market and a cultural and social programme open to the public. In Michel Kagan's municipal centre, a permanent shared facility is created around the theme of craft and applied art. The housing reunites a mix of generations and re-examines ways of living at high level in Paris.