"Habiter l’eau" (Living at the water's edge)

A special report in "Traits d’agences"

The urban planning agencies' 2015 winter magazine devotes a special report to flood risks coordinated by Jérôme Baratier, Director of the Tours urban planning agency, which reviews the discussions and actions under way in different territories including the Loire Valley: 

• Resilience of urban forms in the Orléans floodplains / Catherine Trébaol, Director of the Orléans urban planning agency, and Michel Ledoue, Regulatory Urban Planning and Urban Project Manager
• The Loire laboratory: exploring the ordinary and extraordinary figures in the Loire Valley / Emmanuelle Quiniou, Director of the Angers urban planning agency

Online:

• Les publications de la FNAU

The "Habiter l’eau" (Living at the water's edge) Loire laboratory

In partnership with the urban planning agencies of the Orléans, Tours and Angers urban areas, Mission Val de Loire is setting up an initiative for testing the possible forms that renewing the Loire landscapes might take.  

The point is to build a shared project culture that combines conservation of site heritage and landscape qualities with adaptation to contemporary residential, economic and cultural uses.  

The following higher education institutions in the Loire Valley are involved:  

• National Graduate School of Architecture in Nantes
• "Agrocampus Ouest" Graduate School in Angers
• "Polytech’Tours" Graduate School of Engineering
• The Environment, Territory and Landscapes Master at the University of Tours

Officially launched at the Loire Valley Rendezvous in November 2014, this initiative is carried out through university workshops on Loire Valley sites during the 2014-2015 university academic year.  

Emphasis is placed on taking a local approach that focuses on the use made by inhabitants and visitors, and the aim is to find answers to practical questions: access to the river and islands, pathways and crossings, links between the hillside and the bank, compatibility between professional agricultural and tourist uses and leisure use (cycling, sailing, gardening, fishing), reversible forms of site-specific furniture and the conditions for introducing new materials. 

A project booklet and short videos are in the pipeline to report on the method and lessons learned from the initiative in the autumn.