Roissy en brie

Located 25km from Paris, Roissy en Brie is a growing suburb facing urban challenges. The fast expansion was not planned and many fractures in the urban fabric are now dividing the city. For example heavy infrastructures such as power lines and rails are creating physical limits, making the zoning of the city particularly unflexible, keeping the citizens away from the rest of the city and the great forest nearby. How might we use these physical barriers to leverage the high potential of this city? We identified strategic points that we will need to unlock by design to create a continuous green promenade across the city to link the different zones of the city

2013

URBAN ANALYSIS

The city is located in the Brie Plateau, which explains the flat topography and the abundant forest potential.

Historically, we can observe that the city has known a relatively rapid expansion around strong infrastructure lines (the power line and the rails) that haven't been properly integrated into the urban fabric.

STRATEGICAL INTERVENTION

A landscape intervention around this green promenade could invite the citizens to walk and bike across zones and enjoy the full potential of Roissy en brie.

To overcome these physical barriers there are 3 strategic key locations to unlock with a master planning solution at a different scale.

- Under the powerline, permanent housing is not allowed for the health danger of the high electric lines. A water cleaning station on the river could be an architectural and landscape opportunity.

- On the RER E rails, there is no way to cross these rails, some pedestrians take the high risk of crossing them to save them from a 40min walk detour. A solution would be to build a light pedestrian bridge which would be part of the green promenade.

- The third strategic point is the access to the forest. It is now not accessible because of the road and the programs. The intervention would be to rethink the sport arena as a smooth transition to the forest with a bike lane, promenade, and natural glades as sport fields.

This strategical landscape and master planning intervention will allow the city to enjoy its landscape potential and de-cluster from the planned zoning to encourage inclusion and mixity in the city.

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