Parc départemental du Champ Saint Julien

previous state

Located in the heavily built-up department of Val-de-Marne, the surface which the park occupies today was an empty site filled with rubble and a variety of materials, next to the sixties housing development, the Cité de la Lutèce. Boxed in by two roads, the site is a characteristic example of the abandonment of peripheral zones due to the unchecked dumping of material from demolition sites. Its situation became an important case in the policy of creating green spaces on a departmental level.

aim of the intervention

The park project had to act as a linking element between two other major projects which have been realised: the Parc de la Plage Bleue and the new district of Saussaie Pidoux. It needed to cater for a number of scales of intervention: as a network of green spaces on a departmental level, an intercommunal level (including Villeneuve-Saint-Georges), and a more local level as the neighbourhood park of the Cité de la Lutèce. The renovation of the housing development was also envisaged. The project took into account the residents' wish to have available a big open space for open-air sporting activities.

description

The first stage was to level off the existing site, two metres above the original spot height, so that it would be at the same level as the Cité de la Lutèce, and allow easier access to park, and the sports areas in particular.

Basketball and table-tennis courts are centred on the main square which covers over 1 ha., and is bounded by an enclosing wall made of modular elements in prefabricated cement, which supports the terraces facing the Cité.

The area of terraces, with their profusion of plants and trees, acts as a counterpoint to the square, with its mineral elements. Both spaces are linked by a series of ramps, walkways and steps. The customary furniture is completed with original parasols.

assessment

Before the park was built, the only existing tree was a chestnut of considerable size. Today it marks the main entrance to the park and is complemented by 800 trees and 2,000 shrubs.

The renovation of the town was completed four years after the park opened, and the way in which they complement each other can be considered a complete success.

However, the coherence in the layout of the public space beyond the neighbourhood park, has not been maintained as was initially envisaged, and the pedestrian thoroughfare between Valenton and Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, which crosses the park, has been blocked by a building.