The 15 international participants (South Africa, Algeria, Argentina, United States, France, Greece, India, Japan, Morocco, Mexico, Switzerland) worked on the transformations of territories in the context of the Zero Net Artificalization law, emergencies environmental issues and changes in lifestyles revealed during the covid crisis. This multi-scalar work was carried out with the participation of elected officials and teams from the workshop's areas of application, Orly and Goussainville. The participants thus visited and discovered them with the actors of these territories, during the first days of the workshop.


Monday September 4, the first day of the visit took place at Orly: “the metamorphoses of the Grands Ensembles - Density and biodiversity in the future station district”. The fractures of the Orly territory, shaped by its functions as a serving territory, the continuous evolution of the Grands Ensembles for more than 50 years, and the major projects linked to the arrival of line 14 of the Paris metro have been at the heart of this day.

On Tuesday, September 5 morning, participants divided into small groups were able to discover three significant places of present and past transformations in Île-de-France:
- Le 6B (Saint-Denis), a former industrial wasteland transformed into an artistic residence and place for cultural and festive programming.
- Le Plessis-Robinson, a town in the process of densification, which also hosts the Garden City of Plessis-Robinson, a leading figure in urban planning from the beginning of the 20th century, marked by the place left to nature and gardening.
- La Cité Fertile installed for 4 years in Pantin in a former SNCF freight station: a third place dedicated to the challenges of the ecological transition of urban spaces.

In the afternoon, we met at the Institut Paris Région for the opening and official launch of this 41st workshop. After the welcome by Nicolas Bauquet, Director General of the Paris Region Institute, the topic was presented by the workshop pilots. The elected officials and stakeholders of the study sites (Imène Souid, mayor of Orly and Abdelwahab Zigha, Deputy Mayor of Goussainville) were able to express their wishes and expectations regarding the workshop on this occasion.

To conclude this opening, the guests attended a conference-debate: “Acting in the face of the vulnerabilities of large metropolises” with Tanguy Le Goff, Politist, Institut Paris Région, and Guillaume Faburel, geographer, professor at the University of Lyon 2.


The visit cycle concluded with a day in Goussainville on Wednesday: “Goussainville, rebirth of an old town center”. The participants were able to explore and discover the territory of Goussainville, its links and potential with the airport, its numerous projects to revitalize the different districts of the town, and its Vieux Pays, an old town at the dawn of a renaissance to which participants were invited to contribute.

Finally, the participants took part in a video conference discussion on the reversibility of architecture, and of the city, with the architect Anne Démians.

Visit the workshop page for more details and consult the session notebook to discover the proposals resulting from this workshop !