Redevelopment of Place Gambetta
Contracting authority: Paris City Hall
Team: elioth, 169 architecture within the DIDO! collective
Constructor: Pro Urba
Surface area: 2,700 m²
Timescale: Designs: 2019/ Works: 2019
Place Gambetta in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, as part of the programme “Reinventing our squares” (Réinventons nos places”.
A collection of urban furniture split into modules to facilitate manufacture, installation, upkeep and replacement.
Redevelopment of the square and creation of urban furniture
Rhythm and kinetics
The vertical rhythm given to the items of furniture creates a kinetic effect that is perceived differently depending on the speed and position of the users. This arrangement capitalises on the quality of the square, which is a major crossroads for mobility. Certain road-edge modules are reflections or repetitions of one another. At the same time, this geometry and this construction principle offer a wide range of possible uses and shapes.
Simplicity
To keep down our use of raw materials and energy, we called on minor infrastructure modifications. The project accepts that there is no need to recreate a paving surface where one already exists with similar properties. The furniture uses wood which has a good carbon footprint and is a carbon sink.
A breath of fresh air in the city
Finally, this furniture should also be a form of architecture that users and residents can adopt as their own, on the scale of the passer-by and the street, emphasising the symmetry of the square and the Haussmann contours of the surrounding building facades.
