Our proposal considers history as well as the complexity of today’s conditions while allowing room to accommodate future transformation
– Ilias Papageorgiou, SO – IL parter

New York architects SO – IL and French firm Laisne Roussel have won an international design competition to integrate new buildings and public spaces into Paris’ historic but underused Place Mazas.

Their flexible urban strategy, called ‘L’ Atelier de l’ Arsenal’, will retain the historic fabric of the 60,000sq ft (5,590sq m) site, located between Canal Saint Martin and the Seine River, while adding three new public squares and a number of future-proofed community and residential structures.

A lockhouse on the site dating from 1905 will be repurposed as a cultural venue and a temporary pavilion will be constructed. Together they will host public co-working spaces, a fabrication lab, an event room and an exterior terrace looking towards the Seine and the city beyond.

A swimming pool and a water-quality testing pool will be built within the river as a response to government plans to make the Seine swimmable in the future.

The masterplan also earmarks space for a seven-storey residential and restaurant building and housing volumes constructed from locally sourced timber.

The design team said their plan “stimulates diversity and anticipates further civic transformations” by forming “a critical intersection of cultural, economic, and environmental networks.”

“We’re very excited to work on such a unique site in Paris,” said SO – IL parter Ilias Papageorgiou. “Our proposal suggests a dynamic approach in city making, one that considers history as well as the complexity of today’s conditions while allowing room to accommodate future transformation.”

Laisne Roussel founders Nicolas Laisne and Dimitri Roussel added: “The design of the Atelier de L’Arsenal is motivated by our conviction that architecture is everyone’s business. In our view, urban resilience and the collective practices developed for and by users are two major challenges for the cities of tomorrow.”

The Place Mazas regeneration is being overseen by French real estate developers REI Habitat and Icade. The project is strategically positioned at the centre of several overlapping future development projects, including a new pedestrian waterfront park.

Also working on the project are landscape architect and urbanist Georges; arts and culture consultant Manifesto; urban strategy consultant OFC; engineers Elioth; and general contractor Maitre Cube, who are specialists in wood construction.

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