In Montpellier (Hérault), we no longer shave, we reinvent. At the beginning of the summer, the metropolis launched a transitional urban planning process. This practice, very trendy, consists in offering a place a temporary vocation, while waiting for permanent developments to emerge from the ground. “The idea is to ensure that, immediately, the inhabitants can perceive the transformation in progress, or promised”, explains Michaël Delafosse (PS), the president of the metropolis. While the projects are often long to materialize.
Several places in Montpellier have already benefited from this new way of making the city. In particular the Halle Tropisme, at the former EAI, an ultra-popular place of celebration and culture. Or the former factory of Schneider Electric, in Fabrègues, invested by a filming for Canal +.
The Tower of Assas, the Mas des Brousses and the Restanque
This Monday, the metropolis of Montpellier unveiled the next wastelands for which a “license to imagine” will be launched. This somewhat special call for projects invites, for each place, all those who so wish, in particular associative and cultural actors, to propose ideas for occupying them temporarily. The Tour d’Assas, at La Mosson, first. Before the destruction of this dilapidated tower, scheduled for 2024, the metropolis particularly wants a project to see the light of day on the very top floor, the 22nd.
In the Cambacérès district, it is to occupy the Mas des Brousses, a former 18th century Provençal building, its orange grove, its small chapel and its 10,000 m2 of greenery, that the community is waiting for ideas. The winner will have to “bring our heritage back to life, by supporting the development of this rapidly growing district”, around the new TGV station, says Olivier Verrier, director of the Cambacérès territory at Serm, the city’s equipment company. . Finally, in Restanque, a “permit to imagine” will be launched for a former office building, near a car garage. To “make this district more desirable”, while “keeping this approach of” productive city “”, notes Damien Van Gastel, director of the territory of the Restanque at Serm.
A second wave of “permission to imagine” in 2023
Cultural venues, emergency accommodation, party venues, agricultural halls… What projects are expected on these fallow sites? Everything is open. The metropolis expects a certain audacity from applicants. Even a little madness. A second wave of “imagining permits” will be launched in the first quarter of 2023 for other sites: a building in the Nouveau Saint-Roch district, the cooperative cellar in Murviel-lès-Montpellier, undeveloped land in Prades- le-Lez and Parc 2000 in Celleneuve.
History to give ideas to the candidates, the community lifted the veil, this Monday, on what will happen to the former Opel concession, near the Market of National Interest. Here will be created a place where the materials resulting from the destruction of buildings will be kept. They can be bought by construction companies, to prevent them from ending up in the dumpster.