Parc Bougainville

Located to the south of the Vallon des Aygalades, Parc Bougainville, over a surface area of 4 hectares, is the first step of a large project to restore a highly degraded industrial site.

From the industrial town to the EcoCité

Its design must take numerous constraints on the site into account: underground metro and canalised river infrastructures - with all that implies in terms of maintenance of the works, access to the services, risk of flooding and public safety -, soil pollution and the uneven level between the two extremities of the project site.

The transitional situation of the park, between the Bougainville underground, the Docks Libres, the Cité Bellevue, the Crottes and the Parc habité d'Arenc make it an essential link in the EcoCity chain, which needs to be reinforced by developing accesses and slow flowing and safe traffic lanes.

Public spaces for the EcoCité

This park’s primary ambition is to entirely create a quality public space, in a highly degraded context (impound, industrial wasteland) to make up for the lack of parkland in the districts in the north of Marseilles. Various areas of the park will be dedicated to different uses, plant-covered areas, children's’ playgrounds, active areas.

Parc Bougainville is in effect only the first stone of the future Parc des Aygalades, a long, 14- hectare tree-lined walk along the river of the same name. Wiped off the landscape in the last century during urbanisation of the Northern districts of Marseilles, this river will soon represent the “green” backbone of the EcoCity.

Parc Bougainville, EcoCity Green Technology

Parc Bougainville represents more than just a public leisure space. It is also a way of ensuring the hydraulic and thermal regulation of the EcoCity, by providing a solution to the problem of flooding in the area and managing the urban heat island. It is this a complex project which meets a number of the challenges of the EcoCity, both technical and social.