Le Nouvelle Arche, Montpellier

Nouvelle Arche is an urban regeneration project that emerged as the joint winner in the 2022 call for tenders launched by the municipality of Montpellier to create the new Folies. The design challenges are addressed by declining the solutions adopted according to the increasingly topical and stringent criteria of ecological transition and promoting issues of inclusiveness and cultural, European, and Mediterranean identity. The winning 'crazy' projects will contribute to the architectural and landscape heritage of the 21st century, increasingly elevating Montpellier to 'the city where the future is invented'.

The project's intervention plot is located at the north-eastern entrance of the Ovalie district, which already houses the rugby stadium. The two buildings, partly residential and partly commercial, recall the idea of a portal by working on the configuration that results by prospectively superimposing the volumes of the architecture and the foliage of the existing trees. It is an archetypal figure that refers to the concept of reception and prominence from an urban point of view. The arcade is represented in a deconstructed form and finds completion thanks to the vegetation, whose presence is also insinuated along the crevice that excavates the residential building in the form of a pioneer nature that inserts itself into the spaces granted by a receding architecture. The combination of the artificial and the natural is undoubtedly bold and unprecedented, disrupting dictates of rigour and imposed boundaries.

The landscape emerges from this arch, which is dressed in green and defines the space of a tree-lined piazza. This place is the identity of Italian culture and representative of being, of moments of sociability and aggregation. On the other hand, the portal suggests a boundary and the crossing of it, bringing dynamism and rhythm into this multi-faceted urban landscape tile. In a perimeter position, temporary gardens are proposed, reminiscent of the French experience of landscape festivals. These draw a constantly changing landscape, according to Gilles Clément's manifesto, representing the evolution of a living organism seen through the lens of art.

On the opposite side is a connection to Water Tower Park, with interventions of naturalisation and reconnection with the surrounding landscape. Small areas for relaxation and picnics are also integrated. Floristic insertions are planned, starting with native species with high ecosystem value for biodiversity and the presence of a small pond to attract avifauna and pollinating insects. The green project intensifies on the rooftop, where it is proposed to cultivate the highest urban vineyard in France. Urban gardens combined with photovoltaic panels will contribute to energy neutrality.