ANGERS : Capucins Development Area
LARGE SCALE URBAN PROJECT / PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Urban development on a changing rural territory
Public space
Urban programming
Client :
ALTER
BASE + GOA + WIG-WAM
+ Transway + BET Ligéis
Angers / Maine-et-Loire
Budget – public space / 24 M€
Surface / 104 ha
Ongoing
Located fifty meters above Maine, the Capucins plateau in the Hauts de Saint Aubin district dominates the city. It is the main gateway to the north of the city of Angers.
Enhancing the pedestrian experience and landscape of the whole neighbourhood, the inner courtyards and the public space at the foot of the buildings is the main challenge of this project. The design of the public shared space creates urban continuity; it unites and reconnects the various residential areas. Each square is a threshold to a block of buildings.
The Capucins concerted development area (ZAC) is a development project which began in 1998. Today, about a quarter of the project has been completed.
This rapidly changing district extends over 104 ha on one of the last large land real estate opportunities in the Angers urban region. The new Capucins district will be built on old agricultural plot lines. This is a rich landscape. The site’s woodland framework is still very substantial, with the presence of embankments, ditches along the paths, hedgerows and stone walls protecting the plots from the wind. There are also hamlets, surrounded by small groups of woodland. The broad horizons form the foundation for this project. Emphasising this helps to enhance the sense of ‘open space,’ a particularly valuable aspect of the site which counters the density of the city.
