Les Grands Voisins
A SITE AWAITING A PROJECT CAN COME TO LIFE WITH TEMPORARY USES
The “Grands Voisins", what a good thing it was! After five years of adventure (2015-2020), one of Europe's largest temporary reconversion sites has closed its doors to be transformed into an eco-district (by 2023).
On the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul site (14th arrondissement) in Paris, which covers about 3 hectares, several hundred people requiring emergency accommodation, such as asylum seekers and refugees, lived and worked.
The experiment has made it possible to find solutions to problems inherent in contemporary metropolises, such as: how to live in the city differently?
It was following the call of the Minister of Housing that, in 2015, it was announced to "open with audacity and generosity a temporarily vacant space" on the site of a former maternity hospital belonging to the Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (APHP). The aim of the project was to create a space for exchanging ideas , sharing the values of hospitality and generosity, and creating a space and time to test, in real life, the meeting of different publics and the issues of solidarity in everyday life. For all those reasons, the name “Grands Voisins” was chosen.
This collective experience has, in short, provided housing, work, space for young professionals as well as a venue for cultural events (300 events per year) for five consecutive years, and this with minimal financial means: 250€/m2/year for workshops and offices in the heart of Paris.
Originally the Aurore association was contacted to transform the place to accommodate the growing number of homeless people. Then, in collaboration with a second association, Yes We Camp, the space was refurbished, and cultural and artistic programming was launched. Subsequently, the Plateau Urbain association also helped formalise an economic model that would allow the management costs of the site to be covered, by making space available to associations, small businesses, craftsmen, and artists in exchange for a contribution to the costs.
Up to 250 associative and entrepreneurial structures work at Les Grands Voisins, nearly a thousand people are housed there, and up to 5,000 visitors are welcomed each day.
After a few years of activity, the arrival of the new owners, Paris & Métropole Aménagement, the developers in charge of the operational launch of the renovation of the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul district, marks a new beginning, as the place was supposed to close.
In collaboration with the associations present on the site, cohabitation of the construction site and the “Grands Voisins” experience has been concluded. It lasted until October 2020 before being transformed and proposing to prefigure certain uses of the future district.
This adventure will have left its mark on people's minds and inspired them to such an extent that some people hope to extend it elsewhere for even longer.