The Îlot-Laboratory of Bellivet

In an urban core set between the ocean and the French countryside, deeply touched by WW II but still hosting pearls of medieval and modern architecture, the urban strategy that we propose re-interprets Ilot Bellivet as an archetype of CAEN’s post-war urbanization and uses this plot to reveal the latent potential of the city centre's public and productive spaces. Our approach is scenarised through time and multilayered; a progressive and light strategy of transformation and valorisation. The Bellivet-lab project is a civic call for the community to collectively rethink the destiny of the historical city-core, with its heritage and its brilliant future!

Caen is a protagonist of French urban history, set between the Atlantic Ocean and its countryside valley. In the aftermath of WW2 little was left of its medieval heart and the monuments of its blooming modernity. Today, in a moment in which public policies concentrate on the development of large scale projects in the outskirts of the city, Bellivet’s îlot-lab project from KH is the occasion to explore the city’s memory and reactivate the interrupted stories of its centre.

Bellivet’s Plot is the core of Caen’s historical commercial center, merging small commerces, with large surface outlets, services and professional offices. Nowadays this commercial locomotive is fragilized by the depart of the old Cinema Pathé and of smaller commercial units.

But Bellivet is also a laboratory of typological history, going from the medieval Hotel de Than to the modernist building of the chamber of commerce, stepping through elegant 19th century housing buildings. The variegated façade-line of Bellivet presents a hidden urban potential: two courtyards, connected to key public spaces but currently used as parking areas, the property of which is divided among multiple owners.

KH’s project reveals Bellivet’s urban potential orienting it towards a new coherence. The Bellivet’s Urban-LAB project elaborates an actor-relational method – “the script” (or scénarisation in French) – which associates public authorities and numerous private owners in a urban metamorphosis process, enhancing  local socio-economic dynamism and avoiding its surrendering to large private-driven acquisition procedures.

The Script defines the programmatic orientation of new architectures as well as an evolutionary path for the existing ones; the perspective being the definition of a trans-generational urban core, for both the student’s community and the elderly inhabitants of the city center. The Script also defines a frame for quality of open spaces and very simple spatial rules for new architectures, which must help valorize heritage without renouncing to freshly stimulate the open space experience. The Activator of this metamorphosis process is a mixed function building taking the place of the old Cinema. The Activator’s position, its program and its spatial quality assures both a local qualification and a large scale attraction.

With its discreet but firm approach, Bellivet’s Urban-Lab valorizes the richness of the existing fabric and brings a progressive coherence to the city center’s public space scene. The many interrupted stories of Caen’s distant and closer past find a new future-bound coherence.