Place Campinchi
Corsica, France
As a genuine project of reconquest, our work is putting in place the tools of a city that must no longer create divisions, but on the contrary re-establish continuity, fluidity, recreate adventure, the unpredictable, surprise and emotions in a desire to reveal the potential of an exceptional site.
We’re talking about a positive project, to reactivate, reprogramme, bring back life, reinvigorate and connect. A project that contains not only urban and economic challenges, but also strong social ambitions through a desire to connect places around a cultural, commercial, collective and festive intensity. Restoring the status of the “noble façade” of the buildings on Boulevard Roi Jérôme, making the Tourist Office (formerly the “Halle des Maraîchers”) visible, turning the Town Hall into a new civic space, providing shade and freshness through nature and water, and offering a new space for the market, all within an “architectural economy” that favours the genius of the place, are objectives that we have placed at the heart of the project.
Read more: Place CampinchiA new page is being written, offering the Town Hall the opportunity to open onto a vast forecourt and water mirror, a place where everyone can refresh themselves and come together, directly in front of the war memorial. A wooded area, symbolic of the surrounding nature, offers shade and benches designed with stones reused from the old quays. A shaded area provides a link between this tree-lined sequence and the Market Hall. The reddish-brown hue blends in with the surrounding colour palette, reminding us all of Ajaccio, the former City of Coral. The project was designed to evoke, rather than decorate, the magnificent architectural and natural landscape of the site. It’s through an architectural play of framing or opening, the search for structural finesse and a minimum impact on the ground that we set the scene for the horizontality of the site. In this way, the site is transformed, rediscovering both its historical heritage and its great landscape, open to the sea.
Heritage is seen here as part of a shared culture and part of a collective history. It is part of a historical continuity and should not be experienced physically as a break, a fracture, but as part of the DNA of the public space. That’s why we’ve decided to showcase the old quays, giving pride of place to the fluidity of the public space. They become seated again from time to time, their fittings and details appearing as marvellous elements through a system of horizontal “showcases” accessible to all. And above all, by installing a vast water mirror, they regain their original condition as a meeting place for the sea and the city. Culture as a vector for pleasure and playful uses is projecting this Mediterranean square into the 21st century. Young people can discover their history through a natural use of the public space, without the ostentatious staging of a footbridge that forces them to look at history through obsolete dramaturgy, like physical “subtitles”. It’s about discovery, surprise, wonder and pleasure.
Our proposal is an open system combining a permanent space linked to the city (forecourt, water mirror, forest, shaded area, market hall) and an ephemeral space linked to the quays (cultural events, exhibition centre, etc.). The first functions without the second, but will obviously be enriched by the latter if phase 2 comes to fruition. This project speaks to us of the city’s past, present and future. That’s why we see the treatment of the proposed land as a framework that can be extended into the “Ajaccio 2030” objective and allow, for example, the opening of the Musée Fesch onto this new public space open to the Mediterranean.
Program
Renovation of the Place Campinchi + market halls
Location
Place Campinchi
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
Schedule
Conpetition: 2017
Client
Ametarra + Ville d'Ajaccio
Project management
Lead architect: Hamonic+Masson & Associés, associate architect: Capo Architectes
Engineering
All trades: Bérim, light design: ON
Landscape designer
OLM
Renderings
SPLANN
Floor Area
20 600m²
