From boiler blue to the blue city

Let's head for Bordeaux, a city that has undergone a real metamorphosis over the last ten years. To get there, you have to take one of the emblems of this change: the high-speed line, which has been connecting Bordeaux to Paris since July 2017. As they approach the city, other symbols emerge, such as the Matmut Stadium, or the new Place Gambetta, which after years of work, finally allows Bordeaux residents to enjoy a breath of fresh air. One thing is certain, upon arriving on site, the whole city seems to move forward in unison. However, there are a few enclaves that do not allow themselves to be distorted in this way. Among these neighborhoods with a well-defined identity, we find the “Achard Zone” in Bacalan, a district in the north of Bordeaux. Although from an external point of view, this space looks like a simple industrial zone, it is in reality a historical site of working-class activity in Bordeaux. And if over time, the factories have gradually closed their doors, the spirit of the neighborhood remains, and only wants to express itself. To cultivate this spirit, the owners of the premises - the family real estate company Immobilements Bret Gaubaste - called on Impact Studio. Objective: to change the uses of this business area with its exceptional heritage in order to deliver a tangible, concrete and daily impact on its users and its territory.

Arriving on site, Marie Nicolini, project manager at Impact Studio explains to us that to understand the soul of this place, it is necessary to know its history. “In the middle of the 19th century, the sugar industry took over the site, and the first refinery was established on the site.” A promising industry, it continued to grow during the first part of the 20th century, hosting one after the other the Saint-Remi refineries, then Say, before the two entities merged and grew to the point of hiring a thousand workers at the peak of its activity, on the eve of the Second World War. “It is from this period where the name of the Blue City partly comes from [...] During the lunch break, hundreds of workers left the refineries in their work clothes, tinting the streets in their blue of work.”

This slice of life reflects the atmosphere that could reign at the time, a vitality that, outside of factory hours, created life in Bacalan, a popular, lively district, with a culture built in part by the social struggles carried out by its inhabitants employed in the sugar industry. Although the disappearance of the last refinery did not cause this village atmosphere to be lost, the community life in the business area is less lively there. “It is still an area of activity, with a lot of training organizations, integration structures and artisans. People know each other, of course, but the community aspect has been lost over time.” It is precisely on this point that the Cité Bleue project focuses on. Re-create a community that sets up projects together, helps each other, and gathers around places of common life.

Creating a community? Easier said than done. Recognizing the magnitude of the challenge, Marie Nicolini indicates that this process will take place “over the long term, for and with the residents.” All based on the pillars that have been the spirit of the site for more than 100 years: the working spirit, the culture of “doing” and living together. “For the site to move from an activity area to a utility area,” she said. The idea of this Blue City originated with the meeting between Impact Studio and Immobilements Bret Gaubaste. Owners of the site since the start of the sugar factory, they transformed the former factory into a business area using moderate rents and now host around fifty companies and associations. During work to bring certain areas up to standard, the real estate owner decided to change the name. “The fact that the name Cité Bleue is used is really important to us.”

In order for this change of identity to correspond to the reality on the ground, several structural changes will be put in place. Although numerous works are planned, Marie Nicolini insists on two aspects that are essential to the metamorphosis of the site. “Our first objective is to reduce the presence of cars.” “Over time, the area became the local car park, which takes up a certain amount of space that we would like to dedicate to other functions [...] In addition, the Blue City is already very well served by public transport. Once the space is freed up for these vehicles, a new living space must be created. “We want to create a dining space. Today there are only a few bakeries and few restaurants, but no appropriate offer. A restaurant is a space where people come together, where the spirit of a neighborhood is expressed.” While these two initiatives will be the first in a long series, they want to lay the foundations for what the blue city will be, a space that is metamorphosing for and with its inhabitants.

Indeed, the metamorphosis of neighborhoods with popular DNA often boil down to violent gentrification, which by repainting the walls, erases the soul of a neighborhood in addition to driving out some of the ancestral inhabitants. And in Bordeaux, the case has already occurred. In the Saint-Michel district, this phenomenon has been observable since the 1990s, through the renovation of old housing, the opening of new shops and services, and the media coverage of the neighborhood as a trendy and attractive place. A phenomenon that, on paper, is nothing negative, but in fact creates strong tensions between ancestral residents and newcomers, in particular due to the increase in real estate prices and the modification of the commercial offer, which is often considered to be unsuitable for former residents.

The aim of Impact Studio with the Cité Bleue project is to avoid creating this kind of tension at all costs. “The idea is not to change the site into a kind of tourist center. First of all, we want it to be a useful place for its tenants and its neighborhood.” To do this, a small space was opened to the actors of this change to organize a few events. This space is also the place where the future of the Blue City is invented. “Working groups called Agoras are organized there, an opportunity to address themes such as mobility, events, vegetation etc. To ensure that locals get involved and propose their own ideas”.