Politecnico di M ilano_Scuola di Architettura e Societ

Msc. Urban Planning and Polic y Design_Urban Design

Group # 07
Nesterova Anna_786031_Planning
Shadurskaya Natalia_785988_Architecture
Verdelli Matteo_786567_Planning

PAPER - FINAL COPY

Index
Introduction
Abstract

General Info

Project Info

Planning Assumptions

What is a Zac?

Actors Involved

Process

General physical configuration

Grid

Zoning and Layers

Public open spaces and landmarks

10

Spaces, populations and paths

11

Three main districts facing the park

12

Single parts description

13

Medium Size Blocks - Front Park Housing District

14

Large Size Blocks - Office District & Bercy Village

16

Xtra Large Size Blocks - Palais Omnisport

17

Open Space - Parc de Bercy

18

Conclusion

20

References

21

INTRODUCTION

Abstract
The research is aimed to find and investigate some of the most relevant aspects of
urban transformation process based on the example of the project for ZAC Bercy in Paris by
an architect J. P. Buffi. The case is interesting not only because of particular methods applied in
the project, but also because of the way in which the work between different professionals was
organized, and the outcome which has been received at the end.
The research starts from global-scale analysis: general view on the process of
development of the Zone (from XVI century to 1987 when ZAC Bercy was officially created till
the end of the project realization in 2006), definition of main actors involved in this process
and technical and economic data about the Zone. Gradually the research goes deeper trough
the analysis of physical configuration of ZAC Bercy (compared in time) to the identification and
definition of particular components of urban environment, such as functional zones, greening
strategy, landmarks etc.
The result of the research is the identification of how a project strategy proposed by
the main architect of the project J. P. Buffi received its implementation in reality and with
the passage of time, which design solutions led to an outcome in accordance with the main
concept of the project, and which produced the result partially or completely different from
the planned one.
The analysis of the case of ZAC Bercy is useful to understand some aspects of urban
design process: which methods can be used for the project of urban redevelopment in
different scales of implementation; which tools are more and which are less efficient in different
situations; how the work of many different architects can be effectively organized to reach the
desirable result and how the planned transformation can be implemented in reality.

General Information:
INTRODUCTION

CITY NAME: Paris

DISTRICT: XII arrondissment | Bercy - Tolbiac (East Paris,
along river Seine)
PROJECT DATA: 1973 - 1978
REALIZATION DATA: 1988 1993 (Project officially closed in
2005)
PLANNING TOOL: ZAC (Zone damenagement concerte)
PROMOTERS: Municipality of Paris, APUR (Atelier
Parisien dUrbanisme), SEMAEST (Societ Economie
Mixte Est de Paris), Private developers
DESIGNERS (PLANNERS; ARCHITECTS): J.P. Buffi
(Coordinator) + B. Huet; M. Macary; F. Gehry; R. Piano.
COSTS & BENEFITES: 173 M; 393M (2005)

Project Information:
SITE DIMENSION: 510.000 mq
PARK SURFACE: 120.500 mq
BUILT SURFACES: 407.800 mq gus (gross usable surface)
AREA RATIO: 0,8 mq/mq
FUNCTIONS:
_RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS: 1.500 flats (133.000 mq ca. 88 mq/flat) (660 flat 44% for social housing, 480 32
% intermediate housing, 360 real estate housing)
_TERTIARY BUILDINGS: 3 hotels, 1 temporary housing facility (39.100 mq) Offices (83.000 mq) - Bercy Village
Shopping Mall and Quartier International du Vin et de lAlimentaire (130.000 mq)
_COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS: Multiplex Cinema Hall (11.717 mq) Retail & General commercial activities
(92.000mq);
_SERVICES: 3.000 Parking lots, 12.500 mq park; 2 Kindergarden & 2 Nursery Schools (4.760mq); Recreative Center
(420 mq); Bakery School (2.000 mq); American Center (today Museum of Cinema) (15.000 mq); Police Station (714
mq); Public Parking Building (300 car parking lots + 80 pullman parking lots); Underground Station (272 mq)
POPULATION: ca. 3000

Planning Assumptions
The planning process to transform Bercy started in the 50s in which the area was invested by a strong svalutation because of a general delocalization strategy of productive sectors outside Paris.
In the same time the City Council started to invest lots of money to strenghten the infrastructural system and transform
some productive areas around Bercy in new residential and commercial neighbourhoods.
In the 70s the City Council started to reflect about the fate of Bercy in two planning documents: the Schema Secteur
Seine Sud-Est of 1973 and the Schema Directeur dAmenagement et dUrbanisme of 1977. In these documents the City
Council defined the strategic importance of the area, trying, without success, to link its transformation to the candidacy
of Paris for the Universal Exposure of 1989 and the Olympic Games of 1992.
In November 1983 the City Council approved the Plan Programme de lEst de Paris, a strategic framework document
for the eastern part of Paris, in which it was decided that Bercy should become a new neighbourhood charachterized
by a big urban park with a residential part and an activity center dedicated to the food sector.
On the 28th of September, 1987, the City Council created the ZAC defining the official perimeter of the transformation.
With the institution of the ZAC started the period of consultation that ended in 1988 with the approval of PAZ, the

INTRODUCTION

Development Document (written by J.P.Buffi) and the

assignment of ZAC Management to SEMAEST.
In the same year the ZAC was decleared of public utility
and it was signed a contract between SEMAEST and the
City Council effective till the 31th of December, 2005
(day in which ZAC Bercy officialy ended).

What is a ZAC?
The Zac (Zone dAmnagement Concert) is a public-private planning tool made of the mature product
of a pragmatic and transparent planning process, fully
managed by the Municipality, through the implementation of democratic procedures involving the society,
the mixed economy and an expanded number of
designers.
Most of the renovation projects in Paris during the last years of the 80s interess spaces once home to railroads,
freight stations or industries. It is very difficult to find, within the municipal limits, virgin lands, so the new expansions since the 60s is located on unbuilt land, mostly owned by the SNCF (National Railway Company).
In the late 70s, the objective of J.Chirac, mayor of Paris, is the redevelopment of all the depressed areas within the
city limits: through the densification of the incomplete blocks, and through the building of new suburbs on land
released from industrial plants or big infrastructure. The planning instrument used for the management of these
areas is the ZAC.
It is composed essentially of two phases:
#01. The first phase consists of an official consultation with residents and neighborhood associations, managed by APUR (Atlier Parisienne dUrbanisme) and by the DAU (Direction de lAmnagement Urbaine), and
leads to the PAZ (Plan dAmnagement de Zone) which is made of a graphic document and a volumetric
plan.
#02. The second phase consists of the architectural study and the realization of the project. The APUR, after
the analysis of the different proposals and elaborate a final project.
The new districts are made of the application of new urban principles formulated by some emblematic figures of French architecture such as B. Huet and A. Grumbach; to whom we owe the idea of a city that grows
on itself for permanent rehabilitation of the built heritage.
RATP - Transport Company Paris
National Government
SNCF - France National Railway
Company
Planning Documents & Urban Strategies

Actors involved

Paris City Council

and Departments

Apur - Atelier Parisien

durbanisme

Private Investors

Department for Parks

and Gardens

Semaest - Societ Economie

Mixte Est de Paris

ZEUS - Zone devolution urbaine de la Seine

Landscape Architects

Architect Coordinator J.P. Buffi

ZEUS Architect Team

Public architects - Office

engineers
Private Building Contractor

Public & Private

Building Contractor

Private Building Contractor

Implementation
Park Bercy

Residential Blocks

Commercial/Tertiary district

INTRODUCTION

Process
XVI cent_Realization of urban gardens
XVIII_Realization of first buildings with vacation and wellness vocation for noble classes
First XIX cent_Realization of first productive and commercial activities related to water transport system
Last XIX cent_Rich activity of wine production, deposit and distribution over 43 ha
1860_XII arrondissment is linked with the city center through haussmanns action, and al factories inside Bercy
became municipal proprerties
1950_Strong svaluation of the land due to deindustrialization and new ways of production and distribution,
Bercy became an industrail wasteland
1973_Schma de Secteur Seine South-East
1973-1978_DAU & APUR elaborate different project to promote urban renewal in the sorroundings
1976_POS Plan Occupation du Sol de Paris (it endorse the indications of 1973)
1977_SDAU - Schma directeur damenagment e durbanisme
1979_Building of Palais Omnisport
1981_Building of Finance Ministry
1983_PPE_Plan Programme de lest de Paris
1984_Opening of Palais Omnisport
1987_Creation of ZAC Bercy
1988_ZAC Bercy is decleared of public utility; international contest for park project
1989_Contract between SEMAEST and other promoters and operators
1993_Completition of first residential front park buildings
1997_Opening of the first sector of the park
1998_New underground station line 14 inside the park
1999_Opening of UGC Cine Cit
2000_Opening of the first part of Bercy Village
2005_Closing procedures for ZAC; Opening of Cinematheque Franaise (ex American Center)
2006_Opening of Simone de Beauvoir foootbridge to link Park Bercy with with bibliotheque national on rive
gauche.

2009 satellite view of project (picture taken from Google Earth)

GENERAL
PHYSICAL
CONFIGURATION

This chapter concern the general description of the project, viewed in his
complex composition strategies and design. The aim of this part is to analyze the entire plot, identifying different elements composing the layers of
the project and different districts that, interacting each other, determine the
social practices and the physical connections.

Grid

GENERAL PHYSICAL
CONFIGURATION

The ZAC Bercy is a public/private project realized in Paris between 1989 and 2001.
It is located in the eastern part of Paris, 3km far from the city center. Two main elements define the boundaries of the
project: the complex railway system on the north and the river Seine on south.

City Scale Grid

Contemporary city grid of Paris is a continuation of Baron
Haussmann renovation of Paris in XIX century, where street
blocks were designed as homogeneous architectural segments. The districts started at the center of Paris and then
spiraled outward. The streets were widened for improved
traffic flow and public health. Paris urban grid minimizes
has clear hierarchy and creates a well-defined underlying
structure.

1987

The old configuration

Before an implementation of ZAC Bercy project territory
had irregular geometrical form of the grid with parallel
structure of roads at the right side and mixed on the left
side. Bercy was an old productive settlements devoted to
wine production, deposit and distribution. Its old stucture
was made by a large number of warehouses.

District Scale Grid

On a district scale grid maintains its geometrical structure and
hierarchy of the streets. The river and railway interrupts the
grid, in some cases structure continues, in others it follows different form.
At the origin ZAC Bercy and ZAC Rive Gauche were planned
as one single project, but later the planning document was
changed and now the have different from each other grids and
spatial organization.

2005

The new configuration

From 1989 on, Bercy started to be radically transform in its
structure and functions. From a productive settlement open
just to workers and their families it becames an integrated
district devoted to housing, commerce and businnes activities.
Today ZAC Bercys grid is a mix of orthogonal and geometrical
forms. The core of a project is a park which is designed with an
orthogonal grid which continues in residential part. Tertiary
part keeps geometrical grid with parallel structure of roads
that are not perpendicular to the main road.

Zoning and Layers

The perimeter of the ZAC occupies an area of 51 ha and envisages new mixed use districts for housing, manufacturing, commercial, public services and businness centers.

It is a mixed-use project with attractive functions (big events facilities, commercial villages, huge offices centres)
merge togheter with common functions (housing, schools, kindergarden, hotels, small ground floor shops). The functions are not mixed in hybrid buildings but are mainly distributed in functional districts with different dimensions and
structures, as itll be described in next chapters.

Zoning System
Residential
Officies
Commercial
Hotels
Services & Public Buldings
Park
Stations

GENERAL PHYSICAL
CONFIGURATION

Commercial ground floor

The elements of the project could be split in four different layers: the public spaces, composed by walking paths and
squares; the park, a large public surface central for the project; the buildings with different size and density; the infrastructures and the natural elements. The layers, except for the public spaces and the park, are mainly separated one
with the others: the infrastructures and the natural elements design the external boundary of the project; the buildings are located along the northern, western and eastern perimenter; the park and the public spaces are located in the
inner part, connecting the central part with the buildings and the external infrastructures.

1. Public spaces and paths

The walking paths design a complex system of
vertical and horizontal routes, connecting the
park with the blocks.

2. The park
The park is the central element of the project. It
fills an area of 12,5 ha and his project was finished before the completion of the buildings.

3. The buildings
The buildings are located around the park in
different functional districts. Each district interact in a different way with the central park.

4. The infrastructures & the natural elements

The railway yards on the north define a clear physical boundary for the project. The river Seine on
south, through a footbridge and bridges, connects
the ZAC Bercy with the ZAC Rive Gauche on the opposite riverside.

Public open spaces & Landmarks

GENERAL PHYSICAL
CONFIGURATION

As written before, the park is the main public space located in the ZAC perimeter. In order to find other spaces able to
gather social practices we focus on analyzing landmarks and squares as elements able respectively to attract the view
and orient it and to stop the walking activity promoting different interactions.
Landmark

What forces people to go forward external point of reference that helps orienting in a familiar or unfamiliar environment. They are simply defined phisical objects of different scale and
contrast to the background. Landmarks give identity to the area and make it more familiar.

Public
open spaces

What forces people to stop fundamentally a created closure and usually bounded by architectural walls and function as major gathering places for social activities. Open spaces have
the power to influence the imageability and habitability of the district. Located along the
pedestrian paths or streets with solid facades it facilitates individuals to stop and interact
with the others.

National Library
Francois Mitterrand

Hotel IBIS

Place des Vins

de France

Place
Leonadr Bernstein

Church

Novotel Hotel

Hotel IBIS

National Library
Francois Mitterrand

Novotel Hotel

Pedestrian bridge
Park de Bercy

Place du Palais
omnisport
de Paris Bercy
Church

10

Place du Bataillon
du Pacifique

Spaces, Populations and Paths

We are interested in trying to understand how the physical configuration affect daylife practices of the population. We
identify three categories of people (workers, inhabitants, tourists/occasional visitors) and for each one we are trying to
draw which are the buildings that each population use and which the public spaces involved and paths to reach those
buildings, using both private and public vehicles.

GENERAL PHYSICAL
CONFIGURATION

Daily Workers
The workers go mainly to the
businness district located in
the eastern part. They can go
out and in using both public
and private transport, but they
probably dont perceive the
public spaces as places to stop
but just to pass through. The
park is not an important places for them, more important is
probably the square inside the
tertiary district.

Inhabitants
The inhabitants deals mainly
with the northern part of the
district, full or residential and
local scale commercial functions. The park is an important
resource for them.

Tourists/Occasional Visitors
The tourist enters in the nieghbourhood using mainly public
transport system (underground
and railway station). The buildings involved in their activities
are the hotels, museums and
the commercial and exhibition
center of Bercy Village.

11

Three main districts facing the park

The park is the main element of the project: it occupies a large part of the area (12,5 ha) in a central position facing the
housing district on the north, the commercial and businness district on east and the Palais Omnisport on west.

GENERAL PHYSICAL
CONFIGURATION

The park is the vital center and the districts are designed around it in different ways:
- The housing district is located in the northern part of the project. It is composed by medium size blocks directly
facing the park. The ground floor is mainly inhabited by small commercial units and local services (schools, kindergardens etc.).
- The eastern part is composed by Bercy Village and Office Buildings. It is composed by large size blocks in part
recovered from the old wine deposit, in part planned for new.
- The Palais Omnisport is located in the western part, near the public transport station of the underground and it
is directly linked with the park. It is a centrality for the city, a mega-function that host events attracting people and
visitors all over the city.

Diagrams

Blocks name

M - Medium Size Blocks

High density blocks (7 to 8 floors)
with a percetage of covered surface
up to 60%. Completely planned for
new.

L - Large Size Blocks

Some buildings are inherited from
the old warehouses (9 to 12 meter
high, mainly horizontal developed),
some others are planned for new (7
to 8 floors, compact buildings).

Measurements

Uses

50m
85m

Housing Museum Services

150m

Hotels

Offices

Shops

70m

XL - Xtra Large Size Block

A singular huge building hosting the
Palais Omnisport. The building is
settled on three levels of height (pedestrian platform; main fabric; green
roof).

Sport

Events

230m

180m
Open Space - Park Bercy
A huge surface with very small buildings inherited and restored from the
past settlement. The park has different features and elements inside.

Educational Health
activities activities

Relax

170m

12

700m

SINGLE PARTS
DESCRIPTION

This part will focus on analysing and describing how the single districts
identified in the previous chapter works. As the previous part, the text will
present some diagrams and scheme to show the interconnections between
the parts, the composition of the single blocks and focus on some architectonic features of the buildings that give coherence to the entire project.

13

Medium size blocks - Front park housing district

The organization of the park front is based on four objects: going beyond
the concept of frontality, expressig the lines of force of the site and the
quarter, intregrating rules of depth, transparency, views and exchange,
and ensuring the coherence of interventions on the park front. The architect coordinator, J.P. Buffi reintepretate the idea of the open block creating
coherence between the facades, the landmarks and the park surface.
The traditional closed block
of the historical city

1. Liveable roofs
2. Landmarks on the top of pavillons
3. Same materials for connections

Free standing building

of the Modern Movement

4. Same materials for the facades

The open block designed

by J.P. Buffi in Paris - Bercy

Connections and relation with

other blocks
Car street, with continous front
and commercial first floor

SINGLE PARTS
DESCRIPTION

14

2. The Frame
The side buildings are joined along
Rue de Pommard in order to build
an architectonic frame for each
block.
3. The Pavillons
The pavillons are stand-alone buildings, lower than the side buildings.
They partly closed the blocks creating different open spaces.
4. The Connections
They are composed by a mezzanine
and two terraces, in order to build
a semi-continous facade in front of
the park.

Semi - Public

1. The Dividers
The side buildings becomes vertical
links between the existing blocks
and the park.

Public
Private
Semi - Private

Public

12m
3,5m 5m 3,5m

Semi - Public

Pedestrain street, with green connections between the park and

the spaces inside the block.
The green corridors
The distance between the dividers
its just 12m, and just 5m its the
space for the pedestrian street. 7
m of green spaces creates green
corridors coming from the park
and going to the main street. This
configuration creates different
kind of spaces: public (the street,
the park), semi-public (the green
corridors), semi-private (the gardens inside the blocks) and private (the space inside the buildings).

J.P. Buffi Coordinator of Architects

Single Architects

_ Design the block

composition
_ Design the common
architectonic rules for
the single block

Buffi decides to attribute to the single architect

not the project of an entire block, but the project
of a plot composed by buildings facing along a
street or a courtyard in order to obtain a better
configuration of the public spaces.
The grid of buildings is orthogonal with horizontal dominatantion. This structure can be identified in all parts of the
buildings: form, construction structure, facedes, terraces. This
is a direct effect of the rules imposed by the main architect of
the project J.P.Buffi. This grid gives to the building a sense of
urban unity even if they are made by different architects.

The grid maintains its orthogonal structure not only in the

bi-dimensional space (length and width) but overlapping the
grid of the district (park and blocks) with the grid of the buildings we obtain a three-dimensional grid (length, width, and
depth). This effect creates a sense of homogenity in the visual
perception of the districts, in particular in the park front.

SINGLE PARTS
DESCRIPTION

Medium size blocks - American Center and Novo Hotel

American Center (F.O. Gehry)
The non-housing functions are
strategicaly located near the
public transport stations in order
to make them interact with occasional visitors and tourist.

Novo Hotel

Their localization permit to create

pedestrian spaces along the facades, in order to ensure a link
with the park and the complex
walking path system.

15

Large size blocks - Office district & Bercy Village

The organization of the commercial districts is based on four main plots,
two of them are an heritage of the old wine productive settlement, now
organized as an exhibition and a commercial center. The rest are new
buildings that host hotels, offices and a conference center. The whole
structure is organized around a focal point, the square, to which the single
plots are connected.
Existing Buildings & Grid
The architects and planners decides
to keep for the new district the same
basic grid of the old structures for
the wine production.

Demolitions
Some buildings where demolished,
some others were preserved and
re-adapt in order to host new functions (commercial and tertiary).

New Buildings
In place of demolished buildings,
there were built new moder buildings mainly organized in order to
form a continuos front on east and
south.

SINGLE PARTS
DESCRIPTION

New plots and the park

The new and old buildings are organized in four new plots, the western
one directly facing the park Bercy.

New configuration
The new configuration of the commercial district is design to be in
some way self-looking (all the buildins are orientated in order to face
themselves), even if the connections
with the park are stimulated inside
Bercy Village.
Connections
The districts is composed by semiclosed blocks, with connections and
paths inside in order to be permeable and connected among themselves and with the park.

Focal points and squares

Each plot identifies some open
spaces inside itself, but at the same
time the hole structure is mainly organized around the central square.

16

Bercy Village

Hotel &
Offices
ZEUS Office
Building

Central Square
The central square is composed by five buildings facing it, some
green areas with trees along the streets and a starway that
connects directly the buildings on the east with the square.

Extra Large size blocks - Palais Omnisport

Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy initially is not a part of the ZAC Bercy
Project but it is a sagnificant element of the area and is strongly connected
with the Bercy park. It was opened in 1984, designed by a team of architects: Andrault-Parat, Prouv and Guvan, it can be can be easily recognized
by its pyramidal shape and its walls covered with sloping lawn.

The shape result from the function

The shape of the plan is a consequence of the function - typical allocation of the stadiums stands. On
the contrary - the above ground
volume is the result of the aim to
integrate organically the huge (XL)
structure of the Palais into the park.
Green roof
Green sloped walls
Basement plan

SINGLE PARTS
DESCRIPTION

Organical green integration

When in 1986 the ZAC Bercy is not implemented
yet, the architects planned the Palais as an organic element provinding possible physical connections with the future park and visual green
merging between the park surface and the built
prospect.

17

Open Space - Parc de Bercy

Parc de Bercy is a group of three connected gardens designed by architects Bernard Huet, Madeleine Ferrand, Jean-Pierre Feugas, Bernard Leroy,
and by landscapers Ian Le Caisne and Philippe Raguin between 1993 and
1997: The Romantic Garden, which includes fishponds and dunes;
The Flowerbeds, dedicated to plant life; The Meadows, an area of open
lawns shaded by tall trees. Some remains of the wine warehouses can still
be seen in the park.

Baffles
Fronts of the park phisically screening it
from the surroundings.

Buildings
Quay Wall
Dividers
Separate the park area phisically in
parts

Buildings
Quay Wall

public perception

SINGLE PARTS
DESCRIPTION

Entrances
privat
perception
Directions from
which
residents and
visitors can enter the park.

public perception
privat perception

Section

Park is visible
Park is not visible

The initial intention was to have a large public part. What happened in reality?
The park is surrounded by built environment which isolates it from the vision of the public. It is divided in parts with
fences, that makes it to be percieved as private and hard to get in. The park does not have connection with the river
due to the presence of the quay wall which serves to separate park from the traffic of the embankment.

18

The heritage of the wine deposit settlement

The park is designed starting from traces inherit from
old wine deposit. Even if the most of the buildings
have been demolished, four of them have been
renovated and are actually hosting some recreational
activities.

The regular grid

The architects conceived a regular hortogonal grid
to be overlapped to the previous traces. The vertical
paths connect the housing district on the north with
the ZAC River Gauche on the other side of the Seine;
the horizontal paths connect the Palais Omnisport on
west with the Bercy Village on the right.
The mixed grid result
The result of the overlapping is a complex grid that
allow the final project to communicate both with the
past and the present practices.
_ The main hortogonal grid connect the park with the
polarities of the sorrounding.
_ The secondary hortogonal grid connect the different
part inside the park with the housing district.
_ The old traces allow different activities and connect
the old buildings.

Palais
Omnisport

SINGLE PARTS
DESCRIPTION

Four different parts inside the park

The architects compose the park conceiving four different parts:
1. The part near the Palais Omnisport is called les Prairies, the meadows. It is composed
by large areas of lawns shaded by large trees.
2. The second part is called les Parterres, a garden devoted to plants care and educational activities. In this part are still present some old buildings of the wine deposit.
3. The garden near the Bercy Village is called Jardin Romantique. It is designed as a romantic garden, with different levels of heights, dunes, ponds, water basins
4. The southern part is conceived as an higher hill arrange with some bands of trees to preserve the park from the impact of the high traffic road.

Bercy
Village

National Library

19

CONCLUSION

After deep analysis of the whole process of development of ZAC Bercy, now it is possible
to say that the project by J. P. Buffi and its implementation were generally successful. It became
an example of good collaboration between many professionals from different spheres, mainly
between urban planners, architects and policy makers.
The project effectively and efficiently solved most of the tasks and challenges of the area set
at the beginning of the process:
- The condition of urban (visual, functional and sensual) unity and identity was reached,
thanks to correctly chosen tools and methods, generally by the main architect and
coordinator of project J. P. Buffi, but also by other single architects, as well.
- The area became attractive both for permanent users (inhabitants, daily workers etc.) and
tourists.
- Wide qualitative range of open spaces was created: public, semi-public, semi-private,
private, transit etc. which provides a possibility to use the space according to different
needs of people
- The project boasts the participation by renowned architects.
However, beside the evident benefits which the project brought, it left (or even created)
some drawbacks. The initial intention to create a large public park was reached not completely
because of physical and visual isolation of the park from the outer space and hardened accessibility
that can make it perceived as private space instead of public one.
Taken together, results of the research suggest that even though not everything was
completely envisaged by the author of project J. P. Buffi and his collaborators, the outcome is
definitely positive. Zone has got an added value guaranteed by the sum of all aforementioned items.

20

REFERENCES
Case Study Bibliography
_Ayers, A. (2004). The Architecture of Paris: an Architectural Guide. (pp. 189-200) London: Axel Menges.
[Language] English
_Buffi, J. P. (1994). Bercy-Front de Parc. In Chapel, E. (ed.), Jean Pierre Buffi: projets et ralisations. (pp. 110-115),
Paris: Moniteur.
[Language] French
_Buffi, J. P. (1996). Bercy: il rapporto pubblico-privato nellultima generazione delle Zac. In La Greca P. (ed.) , Interventi nella citt consolidata: casi francesi e italiani a confronto. (pp. 71-77), Roma: Gangemi.
[Language] ItaliaN
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URBAN DESIGN - 2012/2013
Nesterova - Shadursk aya - Verdelli