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Located between the banks of the Loire and the tracks of the high-speed train station a few minutes from the center of Nantes and two hours from Paris, the new neighborhood EuroNantes Gare is one of France’s major public/private urban regeneration projects. Known as ZACs (Zone d’Aménagement Concerté), these developments have changed the face of French cities. Begun in 2004 and scheduled for completion in 2025, Nantes’ new neighborhood is designed to have a total of 2000 apartments, 200,000 sqm office and 15,000 sqm retail space, public services for some 40,000 sqm, and 12 hectares of communal land. Requiring enormous capital investment, this huge urban development has reshaped vast areas in just a few decades. Importantly, the urban plan underpinning these new quarters differs profoundly from city layouts of the past. Historic cities owe their complexity and fascination to the many different over-layers of usage and language built up down the centuries. In contrast, large neighborhoods springing up from scratch tend to have little historical or aesthetic connection with the context they are replacing. This can only be countered if urbanists, developers and architects join forces to produce quality environments for people to live in. Located on Nantes’ Mail Pablo Picasso, New’R by Hamonic + Masson is a pivotal building for the area masterplan designed by the urbanists at Atelier Ruelle, who earmarked this plot for a landmark high-rise with an open permeable ground floor that would not interrupt the circulation paths connecting the main avenue with the neighborhood behind. As well as building the requisite high-rise, Hamonic + Masson devised a huge program whose imposing volume not only relates to the surrounding neighborhood but also changes appearance depending on the point of observation. A clear landmark for the new city quarter, it connects the main avenue with the area behind, while the rooftop offers splendid...
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Deposits of History
Manuel Aires Mateus
Introduction The emphasis of this text is to reflect on the deposit of memories and history, and their representation. Reality and its Mediations Hist...
Barcelona MAPPING
For this issue, TheCityPlan has moved to Barcelona, a city integrally associated with urban regeneration. Following our now standard approach, we anal...
Active Public Space:
Barcelona is a city with an innate desire to be at the forefront of innovation in terms of urban planning and development. Considered by many not only...
