The Dutch bureau has been solving urban planning problems in the French port city of Bordeaux for several years: since 2010, OMA has been working on a program to build 50 thousand housing units there. And now the workshop has created a master plan for the integrated development of the southern suburbs of Begle and Vilnav-d'Ornon, the aim of which is to connect these two districts with the main station of the city by laying new tram lines. As a result, the increased transport accessibility of these territories should stimulate their regeneration.
It is worth noting that Bordeaux trams, which mainly use the bottom (ground) current collection, are an extensive transport system around which the authorities plan to develop the urban environment. It was trams that allowed the traffic collapse in the metropolitan area in the early 2000s, after the first tram system was closed in the 1960s for the development of highways.
OMA's regeneration strategy involves correcting the line of new tram lines: if the authorities wanted to lay them rigidly along the highway to Toulouse, now they will go along a more flexible route and even cross this highway at one point. Due to this, the volume of demolition of the existing buildings will be significantly reduced (from 5000 m2 to 1436 m2). The vacated plots will have 873 housing units, "silos" - garages, commercial facilities. Around the tram tracks, pedestrian zones and public spaces will be arranged, which will form another, slowest in speed line (compared to highways and trams).
The landscape architects Coloco, the engineering company EGIS, as well as the real estate consultants CBRE and the "sustainable development" EGIS Concept will work with OMA on the development of Begle and Vilnav d'Ornon.
