Lucien Rose Complex / Atelier du Pont

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Text description provided by the architects. Dreamed by of Edmond Herve, Mayor of Rennes from 1977 to 2008 and a leading figure on the French political scene, the new Lucien Rose Complex created by Atelier du Pont is in keeping with an area that has historically belonged to the city’s more prosperous inhabitants: the down-town Thabor Botanical Gardens district. This could have evoked a trend from the distant past – a sort of ‘ghettofication‘ where the poorer classes took over ‘posh’ neighbourhoods but it has resulted in a happy marriage instead. An alchemy between radicalism and social integration, the old and the new, protected areas and sympathetic town planning, public facilities and social housing, the Lucien Rose story is one of reciprocal enhancement for users and employees of the park and the library, and for old and new residents. The overall layout of the new district, consisting of 81 social housing units, car parks, a public library, new paths plus access to Thibor Park, has been expansively designed to give all citizens of Rennes a new view of the park that differs from the ground plan originally proposed by the Town Council.