The aim of the competition was to show that the selected site is ideally suited for the construction of the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris - TGI, as well as residential and commercial areas that would connect the renovated Paris 13 district with the new National Library of France. A special place in the task for the participants was occupied by the reconstruction of the Freycinet Workshop, a remarkable monument of industrial architecture of the early 20th century, which now occupies a central place in the territory chosen for construction. It should be noted that all three projects, which won first places in the competition, presuppose the complete preservation and reconstruction of this most interesting building.
The idea of building a new judicial complex for Paris arose back in the mid-1990s, when it became clear that the Palace of Justice on the island of Site could no longer perform its functions successfully: due to a lack of space, its branches spread throughout the city, and the main building was dilapidated … The decision-making process on reconstruction was long, but finally, in 2004, it was decided to move the Supreme Court to a new building, and to house the cassation and appeal courts in the old one.
At the beginning of 2006, an idea competition was launched, which was supposed to show the prospects for such a plan. The jury, chaired by Massimiliano Fuksas, included other famous architects - Josep Asebillo, Dominique Perrault, Wolf Prix (Coop Himmel (b) lau), Rudy Ricciotti, Benedetta Tagliabue, Bernard Chumi, as well as the famous American architectural critic Paul Goldberg. As a result, they have awarded three first prizes in the category of professional architects: projects
Josep Fuses and Joan Viader (Spain), bureau "3 Box" (Pacôme Bonnier Charles Girard Jonathan Bruter) (France)
and Fernando Donis from OMA and Katrin Betschinger (Netherlands).
In total, 200 architects and 75 students from all over the world took part in the competition. Professionals also received 7 incentive prizes, and students - 5 first (all of them went to the French) and 2 incentive.
Fuses and Vyader proposed in their project to create on the site of the former industrial zone a series of open public spaces linking the National Library, the courthouse and the surrounding neighborhoods. The Freycinet workshop is open from the main façade and from the side to the urban space by means of glazing, and a "fourth nave" has been added to it, which contrasts with the more traditional industrial building of Eugène Freycinet with its modern forms.
“3 Box” intends to make the Freycinet Workshop the central hub of the entire development of the territory. It has been transformed into a public space linking residential buildings, offices, entertainment facilities, shops, a park and a courthouse built around it. New quarters are heterogeneous in nature, interspersed with squares and squares, which corresponds to the structure of the urban fabric of the districts of old Paris.
Fernando Donis and Catherine Bechinger envision the future of Freycinet-Tolbiak as a whole city-wide and diversity at the district level. The new city park is the connecting link of this plan, creating a dialogue between the Workshop and the new development, reconciling the legacy of the past and the present, society and government.
