Location: Boulevard Aubanel – Miramas, France. Architects: AFC Architectes Year: 2019 Surface Area: 800 m2 Photography: Uatxut

The Redevelopment of Boulevard Aubanel

The proposed project aims to establish a linear plant park that accompanies walkers from the Péronne ZAC to the center of Miramas in a qualitative and playful setting, built around play areas, relaxation zones, and educational gardens.  The construction of this project helps relieve transit traffic outside the urban area, which provides a great opportunity to reduce car use in the city.   

A Boulevard with Multiple Environments

In the first zone, Boulevard Aubanel offers an urban park that has become a true transition space, where mineral surfaces give way to plants. At the entrance to the Boulevard Linear Park, there is a square and a fountain. The square is designed to host various kiosks, ice cream parlors, or waffle stalls, thus becoming the central space of the project.  In the second area, we find simple and contemporary games that allow children to explore movement and the forces of gravity. These games fit into the context of the park and the project as a whole, enriching the park spaces with new experiences. 

  In the third space, we find the educational gardens. These are biodiversity observation areas where educational beehives, birdhouses, insect hotels, and many other spots have been established amidst the vegetation to raise awareness.  The fourth zone is marked by the design of the ground paving, which reinterprets the reflections of the canal’s white waters through the presence of colored triangular slabs. This will be the future venue for celebrating summer festivals. 

  In the final zone, passersby will be accompanied by a linear garden, serving as a link between the park at the city entrance and the city center.

Protecting Ecosystems and Reintegrating Biodiversity

The plant species were selected with the goal of conserving and strengthening the local ecosystem, making an effort to preserve or locally source the maximum number of plants. In this way, the position of existing trees has been preserved, so today one can still observe the stone pines from the old central avenue and the plane trees that lined the banks of the Boulevard.  In addition, soft lighting has been installed to minimize the impact on local fauna and combat night pollution, thanks to lower intensity and redesigned lighting fixtures.  Energy consumption is reduced by 30% and night pollution will be considerably lowered. The lighting of the paths is also optimized by a combination that pairs well with the very light color of the triangular paving slabs. This light color also has the advantage of helping to reduce the “heat island” effect.

Air-Clean® Decontaminating Paving

The triangular slab designed for the pedestrian zone is a custom-made concrete slab with geometric characteristics of 63x63x40cm and a thickness of 8 cm. In addition to using light colors in the manufacturing of this paving, the triangular slab provides the Air-Clean® decontaminating property.  AirClean is a solution that reduces air pollution through a decontaminating agent activated by photocatalysis. Under the effects of sunlight, it triggers a decomposition of polluting oxides (NOx) into byproducts that are washed away by rainwater. 

  References:

 
• https://www.cylea.fr/actualites/livraison-du-chantier-zac-de-la-peronne/

 

• https://www.cylea.fr/actualites/demarrage-chantier-reamenagement-boulevard-aubanel/

 

• http://www.laquet.fr/presse/boulevard-aubanel-a-miramas-13/