An Arena is a building capable of reconciling the spectacular and the ordinary, the big public and individual experience, the hard (flow and logistics) and the soft. In a place as singular as Porte de la Chapelle an Arena also needs to be a building that can change the area and support its transformation. Our project is first and foremost an urban arena, urban in the sense that it speaks both to the neighborhood in its local dimension and to the metropolis in its radiant dimension.
Porte de la Chapelle today is a major point of exchange in the Grand Paris Metropolis, located along the historic Saint Denis road and connected to the Périphérique and the A1 highway. With its largely dimensioned road and rail infrastructure, it has always been at the service of the city but this is evolving today with the new ecological challenges that we face and the current transformation of the district. We are now witnessing the construction of an urban and connected district with nearly 2000 new dwellings, the Condorcet university campus and large green spaces such as Chapelle Charbon park. There is also the potential transformation of the Périphérique, today a strong border between two different urban systems, that will have to become a more public and permeable infrastructure turning porte de la Chapelle into a great metropolitan public space.
Our project proposes to initiate this transformation by offering a dynamic and fresh space centered around physical activities and well-being for all. the building responds to four urban ambitions :
1. The existing green canopy around the interchange is augmented and densified all around the arena to produce a fresh environment of well-being and right down to the building itself.
2. The experience of the Arena is diffused outside of its strict envelope through an outdoor public floor that offers different small arenas for people to practice outdoor sports and other collective activities.
3. On its first two levels, the arena forms an open Parisian ground floor that contributes to making the district an urban and active place at all hours of the day. This ground floor is a continuation of the ZAC Gare des Mines Fillettes and anchors the arena in its local urban context.
4. The project makes a clear distinction between the open urban level and the closed volumes that emerge as a metropolitan crown visible from afar.
New JOP 2024 Arena, winning proposal
Team : Bouygues construction, NP2F + SCAU, GRAU, Djao Rakitine + experts
Client : Ville de Paris