OMA to Masterplan southern neighbourhood of Bordeaux

This week new project for OMA, because has been commissioned to design a masterplan for a major new urban development south of Bordeaux (FR), based on the expansion of the local tram system. The project, led by OMA associate Clement Blanchet and commissioned by La Fabrique Métropolitaine de la Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux, aims to regenerate the neighborhoods of Bègles and Villenave d'Ornon, forging new connections to Bordeaux's central station.

The masterplan will create a new urban strategy for better integration of the tramline into this part of the city, thus unlocking potential in terms of both city development as well as new public space. The design will be executed over the coming five years and is conceived as part of the new identity for the "Porte Sud de Bordeaux" (Bordeaux south gate).

"We took the tramway extension as an opportunity to rebuild this part of the city, generating a new linear condition which allows the possibility to define a fast / slow cityscape. By shifting the tram line from its previously planned location, we create potential for new types of housing and commercial development." said Blanchet.

The masterplan accommodates two contrasting conditions: one fast, the current Route de Toulouse; and one slow, dedicated to pedestrian traffic of the new neighborhood's inhabitants, which will emerge around the tramline. OMA will work on the public space along the tramline in collaboration with landscape architect Coloco.

The project continues OMA's intensive recent engagement in Bordeaux: the office has been working since 2010 on the masterplan for 50,000 new housing units in the city. OMA, with Clement Blanchet, has recently won three major competitions in France: the Bibliothèque Multimédia à Vocation Régionale (BMVR) in Caen, to go under construction this summer; the Parc des Expositions in Toulouse; and Ecole Centrale at Saclay, outside Paris. Below, links with more information.

CREDITS

Architects.- OMA.
Landscape architect.- Coloco.
Sustainability adviser.- Egis Concept.
Engineering office.- Egis.
Real estate adviser.- CBRE.

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Project plan. Route de Toulouse. Masterplan southern neighbourhood of Bordeaux. Image courtesy of OMA.

Three individual areas connected by the new tram system. Route de Toulouse. Masterplan southern neighbourhood of Bordeaux. Image courtesy of OMA.

New urban program. Route de Toulouse. Masterplan southern neighbourhood of Bordeaux. Image courtesy of OMA.

New Tram proposal, Route de Toulouse. Masterplan southern neighbourhood of Bordeaux. Image courtesy of OMA.

Urban context intersection with the Route de Toulouse. Masterplan southern neighbourhood of Bordeaux. Image courtesy of OMA.

Isometric, Route de Toulouse. Masterplan southern neighbourhood of Bordeaux. Image courtesy of OMA.

Section Route de Toulouse. Masterplan southern neighbourhood of Bordeaux. Image courtesy of OMA.

Model with Route de Toulouse. Masterplan southern neighbourhood of Bordeaux. Image courtesy of OMA.

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OMA. Office for Metropolitan Architecture

Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. AMO, a research and design studio, applies architectural thinking to domains beyond. OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.

OMA’s completed projects include Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles (2020), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), WA Museum Boola Bardip (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), Casa da Música in Porto (2005), and the Seattle Central Library (2004).

AMO often works in parallel with OMA's clients to fertilize architecture with intelligence from this array of disciplines. This is the case with Prada: AMO's research into identity, in-store technology, and new possibilities of content-production in fashion helped generate OMA's architectural designs for new Prada epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. In 2004, AMO was commissioned by the European Union to study its visual communication, and designed a colored "barcode" flag, combining the flags of all member states, which was used during the Austrian presidency of the EU. AMO has worked with Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast, Harvard University and the Hermitage. It has produced Countryside: The Future, a research exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including Public Works (2012), Cronocaos (2010), and The Gulf (2006); and for Fondazione Prada, including When Attitudes Become Form (2012) and Serial and Portable Classics (2015). AMO, with Harvard University, was responsible for the research and curation of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale and its publication Elements. Other notable projects are Roadmap 2050, a plan for a Europe-wide renewable energy grid; Project Japan, a 720-page book on the Metabolism architecture movement (Taschen, 2010); and the educational program of Strelka Institute in Moscow.