1. Urban Context | Decline of Industry and Urban Fragmentation
Once a thriving industrial suburb of Paris, Ivry-sur-Seine has undergone rapid transformation since deindustrialization. The city’s fragmentation, triggered by the 19th-century railway, deepened with the departure of factories and workshops. The area between the city center and the former industrial zone is now defined by abandoned buildings, high walls, and fences. The productive fabric that once sustained Ivry has vanished, leaving scattered traces of its industrial past. Today, large housing projects such as ZAC Ivry Confluence are developing north of the railway, yet spaces along the tracks remain excluded, maintaining the separation from the historic southern core.
2. Project Objective | Reviving Production and Reconnecting the City
The project seeks to reactivate the abandoned industrial land along the railway and reinterpret Ivry’s manufacturing heritage in a contemporary way. Positioned between the old town and the emerging residential area, the site becomes an urban hinge reconnecting the two sides. Two key structures — a Manufacturing Hub and an Inhabited Bridge (Pont habité) — physically reunite the divided city while renewing the craftsmanship and productive culture that once shaped Ivry, transforming them into new drivers of urban vitality.
3. Design Concept | The “Productive City” (Ville Fabricante)
Beyond simple renovation, the project envisions urban regeneration through the revival of production. It proposes a self-sufficient urban system where goods are produced and consumed locally, reintegrating fabrication into daily life. This revival creates more than economic growth: it builds an ecosystem where knowledge and craft, thinking and making coexist. Using local resources and existing infrastructure, the project enables the full cycle — design, prototyping, fabrication — within the same district. This circular model diversifies employment, connects intellectual and manual work, and reduces energy use and waste. The Manufacturing Hub acts as an open, intergenerational space for artisans, makers, students, and citizens — an incubator of creativity and collaboration. Ultimately, the project envisions a renewed “Productive City”, where the act of making restores both memory and community.
