The vantage point of the process came through the identification of the Seine riverfront as a contested public space. Monument, ecological zone, essential infrastructure, zone of gentrification, and even for some, zone of habitation and essential needs. With these frames in mind, a number of sites were noted for vacancies or uncertain states due to the effects of the Olympics on the urban landscape. Simultaneusly, a specific position was established through the experience of volunteering in a Parisian Tiers Lieu (French for third place) during the fall of 2023; Les Amarres on Quay d’Austerlitz, soon to be closed down before the 2024 Olympics. In recent years, the Tiers Lieu mode of organization has proven to be a successful way of coordinating and mobilizing civic actors and NGOs outside of capital or government systems. Les Amarres on Quay d’Austerlitz, a tiers lieu “Solidaire et Festif” is just one example of how this type of conglomeration might take shape. The proposal tries to both understand and integrate these emergent forms of organization as well as to understand how to interface them within a specific urban context.
The use of the existing facilities was researched through interviews with both staff and users on their four years of occupying the riverfront storage space. On one hand these are stories about inclusion and giving a dignified platform and civic presence within the city for the marginalized – on the other, the realities of running an institution catering to a wide range of needs of care and security. Currently, there are serious concerns on what will happen to its 80 000 yearly users as no viable option nor guarantee of return is given. As the community of NGOs lose their offices and event spaces, a crucial aid for the already pressured homeless and economically challenged population disappears.
Platforms of exchange between different people with different backgrounds and different values is vital to our communities and therefore to architecture. As the building is converted to a logistics terminal, this project proposes a possible relocation to the site of a vacant parking garage also bordering on the Seine and belonging to newly inscribed historic monument and national broadcasting house Maison de la Radio. The location was identified as a critical zone both for bordering between these two monumental sites, as well as its placement between two of the wealthiest and most intensely gentrified arrondissements of Paris.
The goal of the project is to introduce a typology which challenges both the role of the center in the Metropolitan project of Grand Paris as well as the role of a modern national monument for a country in deep political turmoil. An attempt to establish new relationships, and challenge existing ones by introducing heterotopia in front of the fading utopia of 68. Partly complementary and partly antagonistic, a building that can help the institution stay relevant and Parisians from all classes and backgrounds stay with the trouble.
