Agence AFL (Stéphane Füzesséry& Paul Landauer), Grand Balcon project drawing, 2022, Brest Métropole.

While the Capucins plateau was completing its metamorphosis, the “Coeur de métropole” operation was launched with a view to providing a long-term vision for Brest’s urban development.

The architect and urban planner Paola Viganò was commissioned to study possible urban changes in consultation with Brest’s inhabitants and other key players in the area. The guide plan resulting from this reflection outlines perspectives for the year 2040 which take into consideration the challenges of today’s world (climate change, changes in mobility) and the population’s wish for increased access to the exceptional surrounding landscape.

Based on the principles of this guide plan, the Parisian agency ABC proposed a redevelopment plan for the heights overlooking the banks of the Penfeld, in Recouvrance. Pedestrian and cycle paths integrated into a system of parks and public spaces will link fragments of the right bank neighbourhoods together forming a continuous promenade. From the top of this ‘Grand Balcony’, walkers will be able to enjoy a panoramic view of the left bank (rebuilt city). This landscaping brings together the bodily movement through which we appropriate space and our way of looking at the city, both of which are essential ingredients for the (re)construction of urban imagination.

^{Sonia de Puineuf}