Pavilions and follies of the «Parc des Bords de Seine»
The series of a pavilions with different public functions and programs are part of a future 113 hectare large public
green space along the Seine river, in Carrière-Sous-Poissy, at the end station of the RER line A and close the
renown Villa Savoye from Le Corbusier. The Park designed by the Paris based landscape architects Agence TER
will be a public park and ecological showcase for local residents and a leisure destination for people living in and
around Paris.
The competition brief included the construction of a visitor’s center, of a restaurant (“guinguette”), of an observa-
tory plus about a dozen smaller infrastructure “follies” with different uses.
Similar to the popular wooden preschool toys in form of building blocks made of out of colorful wood, this
collection of pavilions and small infrastructure «follies» is based on a modular wood system, repeating and
combining different sized and different angled timber frames. This approach allows for interesting and
unusual constructions, enabling a wide range of possible variations with a very limited number of elements, while
at the same type staying very flexible for future adaptions and during the construction phase. This will result in
unique atmospheres and spaces for each of the pavilions and infrastructure follies. In addition to that it’s a
relatively low priced construction method which enables the integration of local building know how and local
companies.
The site of the project is an exceptional one, for its location along the Seine river and for its “in-between”, dual
nature (land/water, city/sprawl, wilderness/domesticated nature). The presence of barges, fishing huts and
houseboats, which have been so far inhabiting the site has been a powerful source of inspiration. On the other
side, the site boundary is characterized by suburban nondescript housing pavilions. The design springs from a
process of hybridization between these two existing habitat models: the floating barge and the archetypical
suburban house resulting in a new typology emerging in the park and dealing with the site’s memory and identity
both spatially and socially, whilst providing a contemporary and forward-looking response.
By working along residential neighborhoods and along the river, we are invited by this project to come inhabit a
large urban room worthy of Paris’ tradition of great terraced boulevards. This very active strip of land is made up
of continuous docks, a large mooring space for barges, pontoons, lookouts, observatories, cantilevered terraces…
These small, furtive constructions must stimulate the flow of people over the entire length of the park, and towards
the water and city, as well as provide facilities for viewing the landscape: framing/unframing. They will bring an
inspirational atmosphere, to encourage new experiences. We want to suggest windows for sharing this new kind
of landscape, and bring the surrounding city to life by intensifying certain elements of the landscape plan:
inscribe it within an urban strategy. The idea is to create conditions for viewing the space, to allow crossovers that
are adapted to the buildings’ uses, users, to the evolution of their surroundings.
(AWP-HHF)
