Éole-Évangile ‒ Paris's first zero-emissions neighborhood

Now also known as l'îlot fertile (the fertile isle), the Éole-Évangile initiative ‒ a Parisian urban reconversion project designed by TVK ‒ has transformed a triangular site bordered by various infrastructure into the first net-zero carbon emissions complex in the French capital. What stands as the most extensive site in the 'Reinventing Paris I' competition is now coming alive through the opening of a large sports center and the first inhabitants moving in.

Conceived as a large-scale community garden, the Éole-Évangile new real-estate development stands in a strategic position in the 19th arrondissement, between the RER railway lines, the Petite Ceinture tracks, and the Rue d'Aubervilliers road, which connects existing neighborhoods with the new ZAC Macdonald (Macdonald Planned Development Zone). Located near Paris's Périphérique ring road, Parc de la Villette and the future Condorcet university campus, the project area features a high degree of accessibility, which will soon be further increased thanks to the Grand Paris Express metropolitan network.

 

 

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Éole-Évangile: the rebirth of an abandoned industrial area

Before the design competition was called by Paris's administration and won by TVK in 2016, the site today occupied by Éole-Évangile stood derelict. After the La Villette gas works closed, back in 1955, only the brick hall ‒ still today present on the site ‒ bore witness to the area's industrial past. The project by TVK marks its rebirth, creating 118 real-estate units, offices, a 130-room hotel, a youth hostel and a 164-unit student residence, as well as 159 homes for young workers.

These varied functional requirements are grouped into four multi-storey buildings, with abundant green areas and terraces offering small allotments and fruit trees. The new volumes are placed on both sides of a street exclusively for use by pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles, which connects Rue d’Aubervilliers to the Rosa Parks square, where the station by the same name acts as a real 'multi-modal hub'. To the north, access from Rue d'Aubervilliers enables the complex to preserve its links with the existing public spaces, while the ground rises in the south to the level of the RER tracks, opening up the view to the horizon.

 

 

>>> Didier Benderli has designed the interiors at the Pavillon Faubourg Saint-Germain hotel owned by the Chevalier group 

 

An efficient and resilient stone complex

Éole-Évangile is the largest project to be built using solid load-bearing stone since Haussmann's times: the four buildings ‒ each with its own individual shape ‒ have used a total of more than 2,500 m³ of stone.

The buildings have been aligned to allow ample natural ventilation and lighting into the interiors and to shield from the noise of the trains. The large central garden and roofing have been designed to maximize rainwater collection. The complex is therefore efficient in terms of energy and resilience, and thought out also for possible future conversion.

"What was the most intrusive, the noisiest and the most polluting in the past may tomorrow become the most virtuous."
Antoine Viger Kohler, TVK

 

>>> Also explore the design by Atelier Régis Roudil for the Palais de l’Alma nursery school in the 7th arrondissement