To show that Ginko has found its neighborhood soul. It was at the end of school at the end of the afternoon, when the children were playing in the streets and green spaces, that Bouygues Immobilier, the developer, organized a guided tour of the Bordeaux eco-district, to prove that ten years after the delivery of the very first buildings, the mayonnaise has taken hold.
What do the inhabitants think of this new territory of 30 hectares, wedged between the banks of the Lake and the Auchan-Lac shopping center? For 20 minutes, the citizen consultation site
Monaviscitoyen, carried out an exclusive online survey (
that you can find here) from residents of the district, which now has 3,000 homes for nearly 10,000 inhabitants.
Out of 107 respondents, it emerges that 64% believe that Ginko has found or is in the process of finding a neighborhood soul. “It is taking, confirms Stéphane to 20 minutes, who settled in Ginko from Paris, in 2015. The arrival of shops and cafes, associations that are set up, are helping to forge links. “
“Four owners occupying 60 apartments in my residence”
Arnaud, 38, also from Paris, confirms that the arrival of shops is a game-changer. However, it raises a pitfall, often encountered in neighborhoods composed only of new residences. “There are still a lot of tenants, which in itself is not a problem, but it changes things in the investment in the life of the building. In my residence, there are only four owner-occupants, for about sixty apartments. “They are” two out of 40 apartments “in Stéphane’s building.
UrbanEra, the structure of Bouygues Immobilier in charge of development projects, nevertheless ensures that the relationship has been reversed. “We had two-thirds of investors for one-third of owner-occupiers at the start, today it is the opposite,” says its managing director Yann Aubry.
“The spaces are well thought out with greenery”
In the survey carried out by Monaviscitoyen, they are also 59% to consider that Ginko is a successful neighborhood. They give it in particular an 8.2 / 10 for transport, a 7.1 for shops, and a 6.7 for green spaces.
“I am in a wheelchair and I like the general accessibility of the district, testifies a resident. Whether it’s sidewalks or shops, there is no place that I cannot pass. I also like the surrounding vegetation. “” It’s very pleasant, continues another, the spaces are well thought out with greenery, despite the large number of inhabitants. “The collective heating, the green living environment, public transport, the possibility of doing almost everything without a car” are put forward by another resident.
Urban rodeos
On the negative side, it is the cleanliness which is first pointed out (26.7%). Among the comments left by the inhabitants, several evoke the problem of “waste littering the streets” because of “too small bins which leads to illegal dumps. “” There was a long time a problem related to household waste collection points, because the openings were too small which did not allow people to place large bags, recognizes Yann Aubry. It is in the process of being resolved, but there are also incivilities on which we must work. “
Other black spots put forward by residents, “urban rodeos” (23.8%), incivility (21.8%) and security (11.9%). Several residents are also calling for the creation of a local police station. Stéphane recognizes that rodeos have become a concern. “When I arrived there was no such thing, now there are almost every weekend. “
“There are only fast-food chains that generate a lot of waste”
If the recent installation of shops is welcomed, they also cause disappointments. “There are only fast-food chains that generate a lot of waste, it is far from promoting responsible or even local consumption”, laments a resident in the online survey. He is not alone.
UrbanEra asks residents to be patient. Cœur Ginko, the commercial part of the district with shops on the ground floor, began to open in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic. “We have 60 sales units in all, including 26 stores currently open,” explains Lucie Piquet-Pellorce, communications and marketing manager for the shopping center. We have very large cells, like Cultura on 6,000 m2, others smaller, and especially several which are under construction and which will soon open, like Gifi. In addition, from Saturday a food market managed in partnership with the operator of the Capucins market, will set up in Ginko twice a week. “
“Relatively ugly town planning …”
They are also 64% to consider that Ginko is not or little an “green” district, and they attribute a score of 4.8 / 10 to the quality of the neighborhood. On the eco-neighborhood aspect, one inhabitant believes that apart from “the successful green spaces and the wood-fired boiler room, there is nothing green: we could have many more things, such as a henhouse, shared gardens, compost… We have to go further. “
Stéphane nuances, stressing that “Ginko is often perceived from the outside as a very concrete and ugly district, but in reality inside the blocks there are green spaces on the upper floors, in that, it is all the same a district. ecological. “Arnaud, notes that” there is everything nearby: transport, shops, so it’s very practical, and there is a lot of nature which offers a beautiful setting, even if it is very dense. “
If the latter hails “the quality of comfortable apartments” he criticizes on the other hand “the choices of town planning, because for an eco-district, it is relatively ugly, we could have hoped for better …”
Ginko “corresponds to everything you want to have in a city”
“Some things have evolved for good, others for bad, everything is never perfect” admits the general manager. For example, “I do not find the first island to come out of the earth beautiful, Galileo, we made mistakes in its execution and in the choice of certain materials, suddenly it ages relatively badly. “But Yann Aubry defends a district” with various forms “, with” buildings, houses “and on which” 18 different architects have worked. “
Ginko “corresponds to everything you want to have in a city, he continues: nature, water, transport, balconies, volumes … We are between 35 and 40% of green spaces, and 37% are social housing. And here you won’t see a lot of cars, because the parking lot organized by the designer architect [l’agence bordelaise Brochet-Lajus-Pueyo] is almost systematically at the heart of the block under the buildings, generally on the ground floor, on which vegetated slabs have been made which the inhabitants can enjoy. “
Between 4,500 and 5,000 euros / m2 for the last releases
Vegetated slabs. The great pride of UrbanEra. Each island has a shared, vegetated terrace, upstairs, on which children come to play in safety. “Even adults can benefit from it. “
Ten years after its very beginnings, the district is now almost complete, with only two blocks left to be built, or around 450 housing units. According to the latest news, apartments are sold between 4,500 and 5,000 euros per m², which is gradually approaching the average for the Bordeaux market. It therefore seems that the mayonnaise is, indeed, setting.