EuropaCity was a French planned development outside

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, initially scheduled to open in 2027. It was a joint project by the French real estate company Immochan and the Chinese investment company

Dalian Wanda Wanda Group (), or the Dalian Wanda Group (), is a Chinese multinational conglomerate founded in Dalian, Liaoning and headquartered in Beijing. It is a private property developer and owner of Wanda Cinemas and the Hoyts Group. With inves ...

. It was introduced to the public as a planned 800,000 square metre cultural, recreational, and retail development to be located in the Triangle de

Gonesse Gonesse () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department, in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. The commune lies immediately north of Le Bourget Airport, and it is six kilometres (four miles) south- ...

in Ile-de-France north of Paris. The main purpose of the project was to combine dense urban development with open space. The international invited competition for its design was won by the architectural group Bjarke Ingels Group, announced in spring 2013. Due to controversies on the project's environmental sustainability and local opposition, the French government withdrew its support on 8 November 2019, and the project was abandoned.

Location

The project location was in the northern suburbs outside of

, in Triangle de

. While the region is currently largely agricultural, it also falls along the route from the

Charles de Gaulle Airport Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, ), also known as Roissy Airport or simply Paris CDG, is the principal airport serving the French capital, Paris ( and its metropolitan area), and the largest intern ...

and is, therefore, an area that attracts a heavy amount of traffic. The creation and implementation of EuropaCity would have taken place as part of a wider development known as the Triangle de Gonesse urban project or the Triangle de Gonesse development project. The purpose of this development was to provide a connection between

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

, the suburbs, and the surrounding

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bo ...

. The ideal project design is one that seeks to facilitate and foster the connections between these diverse, but interdependent areas through the creation of a dense, urban development Additionally, the development will seek to combine the efficiency of the urban setting with the healthfulness of country living.

Design competition

The design of EuropaCity was awarded through an international invited competition limited to four international architectural teams: Bjarke Ingels Group (

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), Manuelle Gautrand (

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Snøhetta Snøhetta is the highest mountain in the Dovrefjell mountain range in Norway. At , it is the highest mountain in Norway outside the Jotunheimen range, making it the 24th highest peak in Norway, based on a topographic prominence cutoff. At , ...

(

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

), and

Valode & Pistre Valode & Pistre (Valode et Pistre) is a French architecture firm founded by Denis Valode and Jean Pistre. It has its head office in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, with branches operating for over ten years in Moscow and Beijing, . Based in Pa ...

(

). The decision process consisted of two phases. The first aspect considered how well each group accounted for an inclusion of EuropaCity within the greater area of

Roissy-en-France Roissy-en-France (, literally ''Roissy in France''; colloquially simply called Roissy) is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France, in the Val-d'Oise department. It is located from the centre of Paris. In 2017, it had a population ...

and within the public development project already taking place in and around

. The second stage focused more directly on the architectural sketch itself. Two presentations were given during the span of time that the competition endured, the first at the Maison de l’Architecture in Ile-de-France in October 2012 and the second in the cultural space in Gonesse Coulanges between December 2012-February 2013.

Controversies

In March 2011, the collective for the Gonesse Triangle created itself following the EuropaCity announcement after considering it a GPI Grand Projet Inutile, translated literally ''Great Useless Project''. It accounts fifteen NGOs, four of them department — Les Amis de la Terre Val-d'Oise, Environnement 93, MNLE 93 et Val-d'Oise Environnement — and has received the support of FNE Île-de-France

Planned design

The winning design for EuropaCity is centered on the vision of "urban form that combines dense city and open landscapes". Bjarke Ingels Group's collaborators on the project include architectural firms Tess, Transsolar, Base, Transitec, and Michel Forgue. EuropaCity is set to be the "largest cultural, commercial, and leisure destination in Europe". This enormous development will cost around $2 billion to construct and will consist of somewhere around 500 shops, hotels, amusement parks, and a water and snow recreational facility. It is estimated that the development will lead to the creation of at least 17,500 permanent jobs and will attract up to 30 million visitors per year. BIG’s design aims to have all activity surrounding the main theme of celebrating Europe's diversity through the experience of urban life and cultures. The surrounding living space will be connected to the dense, urban fabric of EuropaCity. To attract maximal numbers of visitors, the development will be serviced by the RER, the rapid transit system in

that services

and its surrounding suburbs. Overall, EuropaCity will serve as a means to examine the urban and natural potential of the space. All services, recreation, and commerce will be organised along a pedestrian walkway that forms a continuous loop. The continuous, circular walkway is simplistic and will allow pedestrians to take in the full scope of the city. Additionally, all of the interwoven, curvilinear walkways are designed to mimic the intimacy of Paris streets. The development will consist entirely of dense, urban, multi-use space that encompasses a "mix of shopping, entertainment, and cultural activities". Aside from the RER services bringing people to and from the city, a public bicycle system and electric buses will provide quick and efficient transportation within the city itself. The roof is designed to be a landscape of green park space complete with valleys and ridges, a result of abiding by the

zoning codes Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

and height restrictions that vary across the area. Not only will the green roof provide scenic views of the Parisian skyline, but it will also serve a number of functional services. It will provide

insulation Insulation may refer to: Thermal * Thermal insulation, use of materials to reduce rates of heat transfer ** List of insulation materials ** Building insulation, thermal insulation added to buildings for comfort and energy efficiency *** Insulated ...

, treat

grey water Greywater (or grey water, sullage, also spelled gray water in the United States) refers to domestic wastewater generated in households or office buildings from streams without fecal contamination, i.e., all streams except for the wastewater fro ...

, and infiltrate rainwater for use in the city. This green roof will serve to epitomize the sustainability ideals and public leisure space that EuropaCity is all about.

References

External links

Official website

Bjarke Ingels Group official website
{{coord missing, France Bjarke Ingels buildings Buildings and structures in Paris Buildings and structures in Val-d'Oise Planned commercial developments Proposed buildings and structures in France Proposed hotels