DELIVERED MARCH 2021 IN ROMAINVILLE, 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 neighbourhood undergoing regeneration, exemplary in its rationality and constructive logic, the building is a link between traditional and modern market gardening practice.

Confronted with climate change, future major ecological and food challenges along with projected population growth by 2050, urban agriculture is considered a solution with great potential for tomorrow.

"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.

As early as 2013, the revised Plan Local d’Urbanisme (PLU - Local Development Plan) authorises 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).

Former "Cité", the Marcel Cachin neighbourhood, 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.

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 an adaptable building that expresses its agricultural vocation: daylight, solar 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 consist with 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 neighbourhood life and transmit the values and principles of the circular economy.

INFOS

Client Ville de Romainville

Location Quartier Marcel Cachin, Romainville (Seine-Saint-Denis - France)

TEAM ilimelgo (Lead architect) secousses (associate architect) terreauciel (agronomist ) scoping (Design office for all trades) étamine (High Environmental Quality design office) land’act (Landscaper)

COMPETITION DATE January 2016

TYPE OF MISSION Complete + signage and furniture missions

FLOOR SURFACE 2060 m2

COST OF WORKS 5.1M€

YEAR OF DELIVERY March 2021

PHOTOGRAPHS © Sandrine Marc et Guillaume Maucuit Lecomte (drone) and Paul Lengereau.