Renovation, energy saving, ecology… On the occasion of the international consultation “Neighborhoods of tomorrow” aimed at improving the living environment of the inhabitants of ten pilot territories, a look back at some projects designed as experimental laboratories.
“Here, we have almost everything. But this whole thing has become too dilapidated.” In front of the elevators in the lobby of Tower No. 8, in the Saige district of Pessac, Christie, a 40-year-old translator, could spend long minutes listing everything that is wrong in her building. Cockroaches, urine and trash cans in common areas, poor insulation, recurring breakdowns… “Not to mention the security problems and growing precariousness. It’s the same in all the towers,” echoes Nahel, another resident of the neighborhood.
At the foot of the slender building which adjoins seven other replicas, among the tallest in the metropolis, you almost have to crane your neck to see the top of the buildings and their 18 floors. The complex, which was built in the 1970s in place of a former wine estate, stands out in the middle of the relatively wooded landscape. At that time, the architects Jean Dubuisson, Francisque Perrier and André Kelderman were commissioned by the public authorities to respond to the growing housing needs of the metropolis. Half a century later, the town of Pessac responded to a new call for projects launched by the State, called “Neighborhoods of Tomorrow”. Following a consultation launched in November, only three will be selected. The winners should be known in the spring.
“Avoid ghettoization”
In the Gironde city with a degraded reputation, where among the 4,000 inhabitants, more than 40% live below the poverty line, the municipal team aims to introduce more diversity, to establish better integration into the city and a change of image. For this project, tower no. 8 will be the subject of all attention. Considered as a prototype, it should be extensively rehabilitated. On the lowest floors, premises will be created for businesses. The programming will be able to rely on the presence of the nearby Saint-Martin private hospital and the university center. “When we started mapping, we realized that there was significant economic activity in the neighborhood, but very fragmented. For example, there are many self-employed people. specifies the elected official. This new allocation could be supplemented by the development of housing intended for young professionals or students on the upper floors.
At the same time, Neighborhoods of Tomorrow plans to develop a green corridor connecting Saige to the city center and the university. The project, estimated at 450,000 euros for the study part, complements another, larger scale: the urban renewal of the district as a whole. Supported by the metropolis and the city, the operation, valued at 250 million euros, was launched with great fanfare in 2022 to “avoid the ghettoization of the neighborhood, one of the poorest in the metropolis,” comments Franck Raynal, the Horizons mayor of Pessac. It provides for the rehabilitation of each home over the next ten years as well as the demolition of three towers. “We hope that Tower No. 8 will be the symbol of the neighborhood’s renewal because all too often, Saige remains the last choice for social housing. We come there when we have nothing else. My main realization was also to see the learning delays of several students educated here. We are in total failure,” concedes the chosen one.
“Very attached to their neighborhood”
“I’m waiting to see what will be done. I have lived here for twenty years, they are not the first to want to change things without anything happening, notes Christie, housed on the fourteenth floor of tower number 8. But above all, we wonder where we will be relocated if all this comes to fruition.” A concern shared by many local residents. “Residents sometimes have the feeling of being parked outside the city and living in unworthy conditions, but they are also very attached to their neighborhood,” explain Alice Heurlin and Agathe Taurel. Founders of Alga Médiation, the two women produced a documentary on the city in 2022. Hours of interviews that they remember with emotion. “The people we met, for example, are very proud of the multiculturalism in Saige. Many nationalities rub shoulders, which creates rich exchanges. What they fear most is seeing new residents replace the old ones. May the identity of the neighborhood be distorted.”
Promote without making a clean slate
How can we decide what should be preserved and what should not be? “Heritage is not just cathedrals and Stéphane Bern,” says Gwenaëlle Legoullon, lecturer in contemporary history at Lyon-III University. It is also, we think less about it, “what constitutes the ordinary part of the urban fabric”. So large ensembles. Present in almost all the large urban communes of France, they have strongly marked the history of territories and populations. How can we consider erasing them from the map? Of course, demolitions, on a case-by-case basis, may sometimes be necessary. Making a clean sweep of this past can also involve financial issues (it sometimes costs less than rehabilitating) and political issues (by destroying a bar, we act quickly, we leave an impression and we would destroy the social problems which supposedly go with it). ). An “easy solution”, in the eyes of Gwenaëlle Legoullon, which is less common today. If we continue to demolish, and sometimes brutally, the dynamic of heritage rehabilitation has been essential since the 1990s. The fragilities are real: the energy renovation project is colossal. But large complexes also have successes to their credit: they have notably made it possible to limit urban sprawl. Christelle Granja
