French Pavilion - GRANDS & ENSEMBLES

UNLOCK AN UNKNOWN CITY GRANDS & ENSEMBLES presents a French city with a population of 300,000 to 400,000 people which does not appear on the administrative map. This city, called Dorsale-Est, is the result of potential changes to an area of Eastern Paris which stretches from Marne-la-Vallée to Aulnay-sous-Bois. GRANDS & ENSEMBLES will unlock the potential of these communities on the outskirts of agriculture where the relationship between the city and the countryside may be reinvented. The exhibit will also show how housing estates can act as triggers to radically transform this largely ignored area. TRANSFORM THE URBAN NORM By shedding positive light on housing estates and providing real solutions to begin their transformation, we can encourage the Dorsale-Est area (perfectly located in the Paris region) to promote its benefits by rising above the limitations of a traditional city. GRANDS & ENSEMBLES will ask the modern architect to face the urban norm. You won’t find anything out of the ordinary with the urban norm but it is a constant patchwork of activities that will make a change. COMPARE OPINION “Common Ground” brings generations together to discuss their points of view on a subject which affects us all. Yves Lion has asked the 600 students at ENSAvt (École nationale supérieure d’architecture de la ville & des territoires à Marne-la-Vallée) and their teachers to take part in a project about this new city in the second semester of 2012. The group project, “GRANDS & ENSEMBLES” will be the product of this compilation of ideas and suggestions. European architects have also been invited to add their thoughts to the stories of those living in the Dorsale-Est area. DORSALE-EST IN VENICE Dorsale-Est will be reconstructed in the French Pavilion using models to present the plans for the area and the potential activities to transform it. There will also be a series of films featuring locals. The Institut Français, in charge of the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs for Cultural Activities outside France, is responsible for the French exhibition at the Venice Architecture Exhibition. The French Pavilion is produced by the Institut Français and the Ministry of Culture and Communication/Heritage Management Department which commissioned the architect and urban planner Yves Lion for the 13th exhibition.