Parc Georges-Pompidou

previous state

The park is located almost in the mid-outskirts of Grenoble, on the site occupied by the old Reynies-Bayard army barracks: an area of 12 Ha between the Rue Général Mangin and the Rue Léo Lagrange. On the eastern side, the SNCF railway line ran parallel to the Rue Général Mangin, very close to the barracks. These two elements -the barracks and the railway line- created an insurmountable barrier segregating the neighbouring districts.

aim of the intervention

The partial closure of the railway, coupled with the fact that the barracks were no longer used, led to the need for a new planning approach to this sector, which would primarily foster the redevelopment of the fabric of internal relations, and at the same time the landscape. Thus, in 1985, the Municipal Council proposed the creation of a public park, viewed as a space which would connect and knit together the existing districts.

description

Grenoble lies in a hollow and this makes it the most level town in the country, in spite of the spectacular presence of the Alps rising up on its horizon.

This fact, together with the need to design the interior layout of the park so that it would connect the neigbouring districts, imposed the logic of tracing the shortest route between both, extending the road system defined by the original structure of the city. A series of diagonal lines were created, which when they joined the old orthogonal route, inherited from the barracks, dynamised the interior space. Besides the network of pathways, the layout of the vegetation defines natural movement around the park: much of the vegetation in the old barracks has been kept.

The park has extensive green areas (lawn), recreational spaces and functional furniture. A highlight of these are the ponds, set out according to the logic of communication between the existing alignments. The most original pond occupies most of the central area of the park: it is a combination of straight and curvilinear contours running east to west.

assessment

The park is the result of a subtle intervention in the environment which has been able to boost the relationship between the city and its panoramic setting. By recovering a public space for the people, it has managed to knit together two urban weaves separated by incoherent building development in the past. We must also mention that, inside the park, there is a new city facility: the Grenoble Sports Stadium.

Albert García Espuche, architect