GASSICOURT

The project "Réconciliations" focuses on an industrial wasteland and its birthplace, Mantes-la-Jolie. From royal town to suburban town, this agglomeration with multiple identities is compelling through its cultural richness. Within its territory, it concentrates a striking urban complexity.

In Mantes-la-Jolie, a prestigious past is veiled by the economic and social difficulties of the present. The industrial and urban fabric fades into the agricultural and rural fabric, large housing estates stand alongside detached houses, and an industrial site faces an ecological reserve. Urban, social, and ecological ruptures are numerous. The heterogeneity of this town is nevertheless its greatest potential, which the project reveals by transforming the Gassicourt industrial wasteland into a place of reconciliations.

Through the creation of a park connected to the banks of the Seine, the project establishes ecological remediation that allows the regenerated ecosystem to become a place for life, culture, and leisure. The rehabilitation of the industrial building stock, at the heart of the architectural project, raises questions that are fundamental today, such as ecological and social value, the conservation of the built fabric, and its relevant adaptation to contemporary uses.