This session looks at the dynamics behind the mutation and transformation of industrial and business activity areas in the Northern Paris-Region. Faced with a context of energy crisis and rare, expensive real estate, the city and urban activities must be their own resource for regeneration.

What is the 2016 Paris-Region Workshop ?

3 weeks, eighteen French and international participants chosen through a global call for candidates, and divided into 3 working groups.

1/ The workshop begins with several days of immersion and discovery of the territory and working topics, including : tours of the territory accompanied by its stakeholders, organized thematic conferences, meetings with professionals, experts in the topics being examined during the workshop, and representatives from the local population.
2/ The workshop then continues with 2 weeks of working in teams, punctuated by moments of exchange (the "exchange forums" are open and allow for the exchange between local actors and workshop partners on the progress of each team’s proposal).
3/ The workshop concludes with the presentation of projects to a jury composed of representatives from the territory and French and international experts

How can I apply to the 2016 Paris-Region workshop ?

The workshop, to be held from September 5 to September 23, is open for young professionals (less than 30 years old) from all nationalities and disciplines and students who have achieved at least a Masters degree. Urban planners, designers, architects, geographers, engineers, photographers, landscape designers, artists, journalists,... the 2016 workshop session will be sensitive to applications specialized in economy, sociology and environment.

The call for applications is now available on our website
To participate, you have to send us your CV, the application form to download above. A short personal essay on the workshop’s subject : this document takes the workshop’s subject and applies it to another site, preferably that of the candidate’s country of origin. This document aims to accompany candidates in their personal reflection in preparation for the workshop on the themes being studied and is to be completed individually (4 pages). Those documents will be sent to the following mail address : zae@ateliers.org

The deadline to send us your application is June, 26th 2016, 23h
Selection results will be announced in the week after the close of the application period.

Thanks to not send us all your portfolio !

The registration fee is 300 euros, which includes : lodging at the Cergy-Pontoise student residence, certain meals, tours, conferences, and design materials.

What is the topic ?

**In this tense context, we consider the evolution of Business and Industrial activity sites in Paris-Region through the lens of economic, urban and employment dynamics, and therefore integrated in the territorial metabolism – understood as the sum of local production and consumption as well as the flows of people and goods transiting in and out of the territory.

This session of the 2016 Paris-Region Workshop, dedicated to, stands at the crossroads between territorial planning, economic development and urban revitalization.

What economic development strategies for these territories will emerge and how will Business-Industrial Parks are going to evolve, with the ongoing renewal of the urban configuration and employment opportunities ?**

New forms of work organization and practices through telework, third spaces, fab-labs, nomadic offices…) emerge, as immaterial exchanges multiply (via e-commerce, connected objects, massive digital diffusion…).

These Business and Industrial activity parks were born of the notion of "functional cities". They maysometimes reflect economic vitality and growth, or sometime reflect the unraveling of an urban and economic weave.

The territorial dynamic at work these past decades in the Ile de France region is characterized by open competition between local authorities. This happens in spite of multiple reports arguing for the need to strengthen territorial solidarities beyond simple trade relations, and for the need to "get stakeholders working In this tense context, we consider the evolution of Business and Industrial activity sites in Paris-Region through the lens of economic, urban and employment dynamics, and therefore integrated in the territorial metabolism – understood as the sum of local production and consumption as well as the flows of people and goods transiting in and out of the territory.

Faced with the energy crisis and the pressure of rare, expensive real estate, the city and its economic activities should evolve from the inside out in the coming years.
Some Industrial and Business activity sites cover large watertight easements and raise issues of urban integration, accessibility, connection and security.

The evolution of urban metabolism in the Paris-Region is constrained by the planned reduction of C02 emissions, by the de-carbonation of the economy, and by the general consideration of environmental footprints. The COP 21 climate protocols are expected to considerably impact the economic growth patterns that have held sway for 150 years.

What is the territory ?

In 2016, Les Ateliers Internationaux de Maîtrise d’oeuvre Urbaine International (Urban Planning and Design Workshops) looks at the experimental potential of Northern Paris-Region, a strategic territory of the Greater Paris Region.
The area is home to the air-industry corridor of Roissy/Le Bourget and the Space and Air Museum ; it is affected by the new transit structure of Greater Paris Express ; it hosted the COP 21 event and will host the Euro Football games in the Stade de France, this area is central for the Paris application for the 2024 Olympics ; culture and creative activities such as the Cité du Cinéma abound and so do large solidarity projects meant for inhabitants, as well as the growing university campus of Condorcet Paris-Aubervilliers. These initiatives are the newest facets of an area with deep industrial heritage, which also holds the biggest river harbor in the region, the urban centrality of Cergy-Pontoise, and the sprawling agricultural plain of Pays de France at its core. All of the above give a picture of the major assets of this area.