CARRIERE SOUS POISSY Architectures in the «Parc des bords de Seine»

AWP + HHF

Project: PAVILIONS AND FOLLIES OF THE «PARC DES BORDS DE SEINE»

Location: Carrière-Sous -Poissy, Paris, France

Net floor area: 1900m2 approx.

Type of project: Public equipments. Pavilions and Follies

Planned: 2011

Client: Communauté d’agglomération des Deux Rives de la Seine

Architects: AWP + HHF

Project responsible: Alessandra Cianchetta

Team AWP: Marc Armengaud, Matthias Armengaud, Alessandra Cianchetta,

Miguel La Parra Knapman, David Perez

Team HHF: Simon Frommenwiler, Simon Hartmann, Tilo Herlach

Structure: EVP

Engineering / QS: GINGER

Competition: 1st prize, 2011 / preliminary studies ongoing

Images: © AWP - HHF, Sbda

PROJECT FACTS

ABOUT

The series of a pavilions with different public functions and programs are part of a future 113 hectare large public

green space along the Seine river, in Carrière-Sous-Poissy, at the end station of the RER line A and close the

renown Villa Savoye from Le Corbusier. The Park designed by the Paris based landscape architects Agence TER

will be a public park and ecological showcase for local residents and a leisure destination for people living in and

around Paris.

The competition brief included the construction of a visitor’s center, of a restaurant (“guinguette”), of an observa-

tory plus about a dozen smaller infrastructure “follies” with different uses.

Similar to the popular wooden preschool toys in form of building blocks made of out of colorful wood, this

collection of pavilions and small infrastructure «follies» is based on a modular wood system, repeating and

combining different sized and different angled timber frames. This approach allows for interesting and

unusual constructions, enabling a wide range of possible variations with a very limited number of elements, while

at the same type staying very flexible for future adaptions and during the construction phase. This will result in

unique atmospheres and spaces for each of the pavilions and infrastructure follies. In addition to that it’s a

relatively low priced construction method which enables the integration of local building know how and local

companies.

The site of the project is an exceptional one, for its location along the Seine river and for its “in-between”, dual

nature (land/water, city/sprawl, wilderness/domesticated nature). The presence of barges, fishing huts and

houseboats, which have been so far inhabiting the site has been a powerful source of inspiration. On the other

side, the site boundary is characterized by suburban nondescript housing pavilions. The design springs from a

process of hybridization between these two existing habitat models: the floating barge and the archetypical

suburban house resulting in a new typology emerging in the park and dealing with the site’s memory and identity

both spatially and socially, whilst providing a contemporary and forward-looking response.

By working along residential neighborhoods and along the river, we are invited by this project to come inhabit a

large urban room worthy of Paris’ tradition of great terraced boulevards. This very active strip of land is made up

of continuous docks, a large mooring space for barges, pontoons, lookouts, observatories, cantilevered terraces…

These small, furtive constructions must stimulate the flow of people over the entire length of the park, and towards

the water and city, as well as provide facilities for viewing the landscape: framing/unframing. They will bring an

inspirational atmosphere, to encourage new experiences. We want to suggest windows for sharing this new kind

of landscape, and bring the surrounding city to life by intensifying certain elements of the landscape plan:

inscribe it within an urban strategy. The idea is to create conditions for viewing the space, to allow crossovers that

are adapted to the buildings’ uses, users, to the evolution of their surroundings.

(text AWP-HHF)

AWP agence de reconfiguration territorialeAWP is an award winning interdisciplinary office for territorial reconfiguration and design. The practice has been

established in Paris in 2003 – since then its partners Marc Armengaud, Matthias Armengaud and Alessandra

Cianchetta have been working on a wide variety of programmes : architecture, landscape design, strategic

planning and urbanism ranging from major large scale public projects to temporary installations both in France

and internationally. The practice was awarded the French Ministry of Culture’s Prize for Best Young Architects in

2006, and the French Ministry of Transport, Housing and Ecology’s PJU urban planning award 2010.

Relevant projects include the Lantern pavilion in Sandnes, Norway, nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award

in 2009, the masterplanning of public spaces and mobility for the 230ha Praille-Acacias-Vernets area, Geneva, the

construction of the Evry wastewater treatment plant, France, the sculpture park for the LAM - Museum of Modern,

Contemporary and Outsider Art of Lille Metropole, France -, the public realm redesign of Capodichino airport and

the Ferro-Gomma Hub multimodal park in Naples, Italy (with RSH-P). AWP also curates and designs exhibitions for

major cultural institutions and write regularly books and essays. The three partners have exhibited their work and

lectured at many architectural venues in Paris, London, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Beijing, Toronto, Belgrade, Tianjin,

Winnipeg, Geneva, Copenhagen, Oslo, Trondheim, Tirana, Lausanne, Montréal, New York and many others places.

HHF architectsHHF architects was founded in 2003 by Tilo Herlach, Simon Hartmann and Simon Frommenwiler. Since then HHF

have realized projects in Switzerland, Germany, China, Mexico, France and the USA. The scope of work ranges

broadly and includes: large scale construction, e.g., fashion center Labels Berlin 2; interior design, e.g., the

Confiserie Bachmann in Basel; master planning, e.g., the public space and mobility strategy for the Praille

Acacias Vernets, Geneva; public structures, e.g., Ruta del Peregrino Lookout Point of a pilgrimage route in

Mexico; or the Baby Dragon pavilion in the Jinhua Architecture Park, China.

From the beginning HHF has aimed for collaborations with other architects, artists and specialists in order to

widen the view on a project and enrich the quality of a specific proposal. In addition to building, teaching is an

important activity of the office. Since 2009 Simon Hartmann has been Professor at the HTA in Fribourg,

Switzerland. Previously he served as a teaching assistant and head of teaching at the ETH Studio Basel, with

Professors Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Roger Diener and Marcel Meili. Simon Frommenwiler was a

teaching assistant with Professor Harry Gugger at the ETH in Lausanne and a guest professor at the HTA in

Fribourg. HHF architects also guest lectured at the UIA in Mexico City, at MIT in Boston and the University of

Innsbruck and the firm’s architects have participated as jury members at numerous universities.

AWP agence de reconfiguration territoriale

25 Rue H. Monnier, 75009 Paris, France, Tel +33 1 53 20 92 15, www.awp.fr

HHF architects

Allschwilerstrasse 71A, 4055 Basel, Switzerland, Tel +41 61 756 7010, www.hhf.ch

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CARRIERE SOUS POISSY Architectures in the «Parc des bords de Seine»

AWP + HHF

press@awp.fr

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