The winners of the "Reinventer La Seine" competition for the "Place Mazas" site in Paris have been for the team formed by New York architects SO-IL and Parisian architects Laisne Roussel, associated with REI Habitat and Icade real estate developers.

Its winning proposal offers a new approach to urbanism, which carefully considers both contemporary and historical contexts, while creating a flexible infrastructure that can evolve in parallel with the city.
SO-IL and Laisné Roussel architects, winners of this international competition to design a new masterplan for Place Mazas in Paris, was titled "L’Atelier de l’Arsenal". Located along the Seine River and the Canal Saint Martin at the end of the Bastille Axis, the area is currently in the midst of several civic development projects, including the upcoming waterfront park, parc Rives de Seine.

The competition was organized by the city of Paris as part of the Reinventer La Seine initiative, which aims to introduce innovative new proposals at the intersection of architecture, creative urbanism, and development for sites along the river.
 

Description of the project by SO-IL and Laisné Roussel architects

The focus of our proposal, titled “L’ Atelier de l’ Arsenal”, is the transformation of the underused site of Place Mazas into a new social node for Paris. Located at the junction of Canal Saint Martin and the Seine River, the site forms a critical intersection of cultural, economic, and environmental networks. It is also strategically positioned at the center of important future development projects like the Balade de L ’Arsenal, a new urban path, and the new pedestrian waterfront park, parc Rives de Seine.

The site is divided into two parts. The first is a seven-story volume that continues the historical Haussmanian axis and tops out just below its neighboring 19th century residential building. This volume includes a housing program in co-living typology, with several interior and exterior shared spaces for the residents as well as a public restaurant on the ground floor.

The second, located on the axis of Bastille, is dedicated to public activities. It maintains a lower profile, opening up views to the Seine River. This part of the site includes three new public squares, a lockhouse built in 1905 that is being repurposed, and a temporary pavilion that will host facilities like public co-working spaces, a fabrication lab, an event room, and an exterior terrace offering new views on the Arsenal Basin, the Seine River, and the surrounding city, as well as a facility for homeless care already established on site.

Our proposal creates a flexible composition of spaces and buildings that stimulates diversity and anticipates further civic transformations. We understand that urban space doesn’t stop evolving; after twelve years the public zone may be returned to the city, offering the opportunity to update its use once more.

Sustainability is a driver of the project. Our design represents a new relationship to the waterfront as Paris works to create a swimmable river in the near future. Included on the site are a public swimming pool as well as a pool for biodiversity research and water quality monitoring. The proposal’s housing is constructed from locally sourced timber and its temporary pavilion features a dismountable structure made of renewable materials, facilitating urban growth while decreasing environmental impact.

Working alongside SO – IL and Laisne Roussel are our collaborators, including French Developers REI and Icade; landscape architect and urbanist Georges; arts and culture consultant Manifesto; urban strategy consultant OFC; co-working and maker-space operator WoMa; housing operator Colonies; social service association Aurore; Yacht Club Paris Bastille; foresters association Francîlbois; partner association Cluster; cultural partners Institut du Monde Arabe and Tara; engineers Elioth (structure, facade and environment); Innogur (ecology); AcoustB (acoustic); and Sinteo (environmental performance); as well as general contractor Maitre Cube, specialists in wood construction.

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Architects
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SO-IL, laisné roussel.
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Team
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Atelier Georges, Manifesto, Of ce for Cities, WoMa, Yacht Club Paris Bastille, Aurore, Colonies, Institut du Monde Arabe, Base Tara, Cluster EMS, Innogur, Elioth, Acousteb, Sinteo, Maitre Cube, Francilibois
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Collaborators
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3D Images Imágenes 3D.- Weiss Images. Landscape Architect/Urban Planner.- Atelier Georges
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Area
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60,000 sf / 5,590 m²
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Client
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REI Habitat, Icade Promotion
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Venue
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Place Mazas - Paris, France
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Developer
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ICADE. Lead Developer.- REI Habitat
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Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu (SO – IL) is an internationally recognized architecture and design firm established in New York in 2008 by Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu. Diverse in origin, their team of collaborators speaks a dozen languages. They are informed by global narratives and perspectives while deeply grounding our research and design in the specificities of local social and cultural contexts. In addition to innumerable awards and publications, their work has been acquired by institutions like the MoMA in New York, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

With their progressive and ambitious private, public, and institutional clients, they explore how built environments inspire lasting positive intellectual and societal engagement. Holding universal participation and ethical construction practices as core standards within their office and projects, they are a proudly certified M/WBE and certified B-Corporation.

In a digitized world that increasingly draws one inward, their architecture is outward-looking, engendering meaningful dialogue with that which is materially and psychologically outside of theirselves. Their work incorporates innovative physical materials that follow each project’s unique scale and specificity, from stretched chainmail enveloping an entire gallery building to an elegant array of glass tubes forming a museum facade. Independent of budget and location, they infuse their projects with craft and material tactility.

With the firm now in its second decade, their work has spread onto four continents. From a collection of industrial heritage buildings housing three cultural institutions in northern France, to a contemporary art center inserted into an office tower in Shanghai, their scope is international. Current projects include a new gateway museum for Williams College in Massachusetts, aiming to be the most sustainable museum in the country.

In 2022, practice leaders Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg were awarded the American Academy for Arts and Letters Award in Architecture and were named United States Artist Fellows.

Florian Idenburg is an internationally renowned architect with over two decades of professional experience. After learning the ropes in Amsterdam and Tokyo, he founded SO – IL in New York in 2008 together with Jing Liu. His years of working in cross-cultural settings make Florian a thoughtful, enthusiastic partner. With a joyous demeanor, he pursues innovation through collaboration. His particularly strong background in institutional spaces has seen him lead the office on such projects as Kukje Gallery in Seoul, the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis, and Amant Arts Campus in Brooklyn. His strength lies in generating imaginative ideas and transforming them into real-world spaces.

Idenburg has a strong intuition for the orchestration of form, material, and light. He is passionate about developing projects to a level where these elements converge into superbly crafted physical space. He combines a hands-on approach with a theoretical drive, sharing this creative spirit with clients, collaborators, and students.

A frequent speaker at institutions around the world, he has taught at Harvard, MIT, Columbia, and Princeton University and is currently Professor of the Practice at Cornell University. In 2010, Idenburg received the Charlotte Köhler Prize of the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund. He is a registered architect in the Netherlands and an International Associate of the American Institute of Architects.

Jing Liu co-founded SO – IL with Florian Idenburg in 2008 in New York City after receiving her education in China, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Over 20 years of practice, Jing has brought an intellectually open, globally aware, and locally embedded sensibility to her work spanning a wide range of mission-driven cultural projects.

Through building practice and interdisciplinary collaborations, Jing has led SO – IL to explore new fabrication techniques, such as in Kukje Gallery, Las Americas Housing project, and K11 Museum — and to engage with the socio political conditions of contemporary cities — in projects like Martin Luther King Library in Cleveland, Neighborhoods Now initiative in New York, and the Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation.

In each case, Jing carefully considers the feedback loop between the cultural, social, economic, and political systems unique to the place and its material practices and seeks to make positive contributions toward transformation. As a past and present board member of several non-profit institutions, including the Van Alen Institute and the Urban Design  Forum, Jing furthers these endeavors in the broader public sphere.

Jing has written on a number of topics, including housing, design culture, and female practices. She has contributed to Solid Objectives: Order, Edge, Aura published by Lars Müller, The Fabricated Landscape published by Carnegie Museum of Art and Inventory Press, Home Futures: Living in Yesterday’s Tomorrow published by the Design Museum, and the Avery Review by the Office of Publications at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

In previous years, the studio has included partners such as lias Papageorgiou and associates such as Sooran Kim and Ted Baab on its team.


metalocus_so-ill_02

> 2013.          > 2022.

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Laisné Roussel architects, is an architecture studio established in Paris since 2003. The partners Nicolas Laisné and Dimitri Roussel have manage to gather a multicultural and multidisciplinary team together operating in the fields of architecture, urbanism, research and development. These 30 multipurpose and proactive collaborators are fully part of the laisné roussel outlook.

Internationally recognized, laisné roussel develops a wide range of projects and programs, from small scale private homes to large scale urban design. While many of their designs are distinguished private operations including residential buildings, offices and campus, they have also completed highly recognized public facilities, such as educational buildings.

Aiming to enrich its projects, the studio punctually joins forces with other architects. Thus, it enables them to conceive more complex proposals and to gain skills through a collaborative dialogue. Sharing visions, practices and methods are dynamics they implement to step out from their comfort zone and to renew propositions. Daring and optimistic, the studio works especially within constraints to convert them into opportunities for creating added value.

Realistic and open, laisné roussel’s architects are in tunewith the pulse of contemporary life and its permanent changes. Their designs are future oriented while responding to immediate needs. laisné roussel is currently developing innovative\/groundbreaking projects such as the residential tower l’Arbre Blanc (the White Tree) in Montpellier, the bioclimatic offices building in Nice Méridia and a new shared educational building of Ecole Polytechnique in the cluster of Paris Saclay.

laisné roussel is also designing projects with a more cultural purpose such as a pavilion for the next Lyon Architecture Biennale (summer 2017) or the exhibition “Haut Dehors” with the artists Cyrille Weiner and Elvire Bonduelle.

27, rue Barbès
The office

The office is based on 27 rue Barbès in Montreuil. Located in a former wood manufacture, the refurbished craftman’s workshop is now a collaborative open space.

Hosting laisné roussel collaborators, it is also a creative incubator for various partners such as designers, photographers and writers. It aims to create a place where multidisciplinary profiles can exchange and collaborate. Fostering knowledge spillover, 27 rue Barbès is an adress where laisné roussel considers new ways of working.
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DREAM (Dimitri Roussel Ensemble Architecture Métropole) is an architectural firm founded by Dimitri Roussel in 2018. Dimitri collaborates with around thirty designers who also have international profiles and who share his humanist creative vision.

DREAM creates spaces adapted to modern-day lifestyles. Their designs aim to promote wellbeing and social interaction both in working and living spaces. The agency develops projects of various types and scales: housing, offices, sports facilities, ephemeral architecture. DREAM has particularly strong expertise in programmatic diversity.

DREAM favours bioclimatic architecture: they choose responsible construction methods and collaborate with local partners who share their values. The agency puts ecology at the centre of its projects, from bioclimatic design to the use of bio-basedmaterials. DREAM’s expertise and values have contributed to the agency’s reputation as a leading specialist in wooden architecture.
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Nicolas Laisné founded his firm Nicolas Laisné Architectes in 2005. The firm develops urban planning, architecture and interior design projects, from design to execution and site supervision.

With his team of 50 people based in Paris, Nicolas Laisné works for public authorities, as well as private players and individuals in France and abroad. The firm has taken part in a number of international events, including the Venice Biennale in 2021.

Thanks to his open-mindedness, his natural curiosity and his taste for dialogue, Nicolas Laisné skillfully juggles multiple influences. His holistic vision of architecture allows him to invite philosophers, agronomists, botanists, artists and even data scientists to collaborate with him. He puts together a new multi-disciplinary and international team for each project.
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Published on: July 19, 2017
Cite: "L’Atelier de l’Arsenal by SO-IL and Laisné Roussel architects. Place Mazas – Réinventer la Seine" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/latelier-de-larsenal-so-il-and-laisne-roussel-architects-place-mazas-reinventer-la-seine> ISSN 1139-6415
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