La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville

La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
© Guillaume Maucuit Lecomte

LA CITÉ MARAÎCHÈRE IN ROMAINVILLE

Ilimelgo

ARCHITECTS
Ilimelgo

AGRONOMIST
Terreauciel

ASSOCIATE ARCHITECT
Secousses

PHOTOGRAPHS
Guillaume Maucuit Lecomte, Sandrine Marc, Paul Lengereau

LANDSCAPER
Land’Act

AREA
2060 m²

YEAR
2021

LOCATION
Romainville, France

CATEGORY
Municipal Building

Text description provided by architect.

The Cité Maraîchère is a new municipal facility for urban agriculture and sustainable food as well as the location of agricultural, social, architectural, and technical innovation.

Within a neighborhood undergoing regeneration, exemplary in its rationality and constructive logic, the building is a link between traditional and modern market future major ecological and food challenges along projected population growth by 2050, urban agriculture is considered a solution with great potential for tomorrow.

La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
© Sandrine Marc
La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
© Sandrine Marc

"Architecture of the living" - the Cité Maraîchère is the result of a political determination to participate in ecological transition.

The objectives of Corinne Valls (Mayor of Romainville), instigator of the project, were multiple: to promote short supply chains, create jobs, guarantee residents quality food, develop a social community economy and raise awareness among residents for the management of energy resources.

La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
© Sandrine Marc
La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
© Sandrine Marc

As early as 2013, the revised Plan Local d’Urbanisme (PLU - Local Development Plan) authorizes construction for agricultural use throughout the district.

The new municipality intends to use this tool, inherited from the previous mandate to service ambitious social and ecological policy within the new Agence Municipale de la Transition Écologique et Solidaire (ACTES).

La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
© Sandrine Marc
La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
© Sandrine Marc

Former "Cité", the Marcel Cachin neighborhood, composed of large public housing developments from the 1960s, was a redevelopment operation as part of the initial Agence Nationale pour la Rénovation Urbain (ANRU).

Also, beyond its primary urban agriculture function, the Cité Maraîchère reviews urgent current urban themes: land management and land use, air quality and reduction of heat islands, the development of community networks, etc.

La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
© Sandrine Marc
La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
© Sandrine Marc

An innovative project open to the city that is commensurate with the urban dynamics within the region. The homogeneous composition of its façades, a suitable and thermal protection, rainwater harvesting, etc. Designed as a "controlled" bioclimatic environment, it combines both ventilation systems and daylight within high-performance thermal envelopes.

In response to the functional requirements of the brief, the design intent is consists of the objective of efficiency in the service of accountable farming. Integrated within the site, the Cité Maraîchère is an educational building conducive to exchanges that participate in neighborhood life and transmit the values and principles of the circular economy.

La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
© Paul Lengereau


La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Plan 
La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Plan 
La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Plan 
La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Site Plan 


La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Section 
La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Section 


La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Elevations
La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Sketch 
La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Detail


La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Diagram 
La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Diagram 
La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Diagram 


La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Axo 
La Cité Maraîchère in Romainville
Axo