Their multimodal platforms, the three main ones of which – Gennevilliers, Bonneuil sur Marne and Limay – have accompanied the growth of the container and the rise to strength of Port 2000 in Le Havre. 2007 will have been marked again by a growth of 26.2% for this traffic. They are attracting an increasing number of combined transport operators. Gennevilliers has now attained a critical size that should enable it to develop new services such as for example the rail-road service with Fiorenzuola (South of Milan) and the multimodal offer Le Havre – Fiorenzuola that it has made possible since October 2007. Limay inaugurated a new container terminal at end February and other sites will also have such terminals in 2009 and 2010.

Port of Gennevilliers © Port of Paris Authority

This objective for a growing share in container carriage by waterway was included in the "Schéma des infrastructures portuaires pour la Région Ile de France – Horizon 2020" (Plan for port infrastructures for Ile de France at a horizon of 2020), a plan adopted in October 2005. Alongside the support for traditional sectors (iron and steel, cereals and their derivatives such as bio-fuels) and the will to maintain waterway transport for building materials, the Plan also set objectives for:

• the development of waterway tourism in a region and a city which is a major tourist destination (7 million passengers), but also of the development of public transport of passengers (water-taxis and buses, shuttles, etc.) ;
• the development of transport of waste refuse by waterway, a development that will suppose the installation of sorting centres, incinerator plants, etc. as close as possible to the water;
• the emergence of a new urban logistic in dense urban zones and, especially smart neighbourhood logistics.

All these orientations suppose a partnership policy between the Port de Paris and local authorities, and the search for innovatory solutions for the maintenance and development of port activities in urban zones: environmental, architectural and landscaping integration, a strategy of time sharing, …

This approach for the integration of the ports in the natural environment and the urban tissue is written into the various stages of the projects: upstream by dialogue enabling the port constraints and requirements to be taken into account in urban planning ; in the defining stage of port projects in the course of which the specificities of the local urban tissue and its functioning are integrated ; in the establishment of masterplans for the sites lastingly guaranteeing the coherence of the developments. Port de Paris is in this respect supported in a systematic way by the expertise of urban, and landscape architects.

This overall approach and the environmental policy of Port de Paris gave birth in the autumn of 2007 to a very voluntarist Action Plan. Based on an environmental diagnostic of port activities carried out over a year, this plan sets down around thirty concrete initiatives corresponding to the asserted ambition of the port: "Acting to be eco-exemplary". Development plan and sustainable development of the main existing or programmed platforms (notably in Achère), recourse to renewable energy sources, HEQ approaches (High Environmental Quality) for buildings, or again partnerships with the private sector such as those established in the context of the recently updated "Sable en Seine" (Sand in the Seine) Charter, etc.

Reconciling ports for events and leisure and urban industrial ports; making installations such as a concrete mixing plant into an efficient equipment, respectful of the environment, but also an industrial monument on a site open to the public; associating installations devoted to urban neighbourhood logistics and those for cultural and leisure installations, some examples of an approach and solutions which, as we shall see, could inspire numerous port cities, …

The approach that Port Autonome de Paris has undertaken for the development of logistics and in particular their multimodal platforms has led to a rationalisation of port spaces and a new real estate policy to provide the best conditions for the logistics property operators; favourable conditions that also include the development of services to persons coming to work on these sites (restaurants, transport, banking, etc.). Here again, the acceptation of port activities and installations supposes particular care in their architectural and environmental quality and integration into the landscape. This approach has been made in Gennevilliers over several years with an overall reflection on sustainable development and the integration of this platform carried out with the landscape architects cabinet of Odile Decq.

After Gennevilliers, a similar approach is being undertaken in the port of Limay (with urban planners AXP Urbicus and Ernst a& Young) and in the port of Bonneuil (with the urban planning team from "Chemin Faisant"). On the platform of Bonneuil, the Port Autonome has recently entrusted the development of over 43 000m² to the big global group AMB Property Corporation. Nine of the biggest promoters in the world had responded to the international consultation launched by the Port at the beginning of 2007. Counting on the attractiveness of the river, the extremely multipurpose programme designed by AMB will make it possible to respond to a wide diversity of activities. The project was also selected because of its architectural and environmental quality.

The integration card has doubtless appeared a bit audacious to some, in particular when it bears on industrial installations in a very decrepit state. This was the case for the port of Ivry (700 000 tonnes in 2005) where rehabilitation was decided as early as 1998. For this 56 000 m² site spread along 1.5 km situated at the East Gate of Paris, the project, determined in consultation with the town of Ivry-sur-Seine, was carried out with the architectural cabinet of Treuttel, Garcias and Associates. It implied the rehabilitation of two industrial zones. Works were carried out between 1994 and 2000 by the Port but also by the industrials themselves on their own installations (3 cement mixing plants, ports for sand and gravel, a building materials yard, etc.).

Between these 2 zones, a leisure and recreational zone has been developed (restaurants, concerts, theatrical performances etc.). An upper promenade was also created so as to enable the public to overlook the industrial activities and consult explanatory panels resituating the port, its history and the present activities in the context of daily life. Urban furniture, landscape developments, urban sculpture, are some of the elements that come to complete this operation to create a new display window and a promenade place on the port.

Consult explanatory panels, Port of Ivry-sur-Seine - 2003
© Port of Paris Authority /La Précision photographique

Other examples of the same type could be mentioned, at the port of Clichy for example or again in the future platform at Saint-Ouen l'Aumone for which a landscape plan has been designed. But the latest operation to date, in the heart of the capital, appears to plunge further into this approach.

New life bases in the heart of Paris

Waterway traffic, neighbourhood logistics, respect of the environment, architectural integration, enhancement of the riverbanks and new public spaces, diversity of utilisations and time sharing, all the ingredients – and the challenges – of an innovatory integration appear to be united in the Port of Tolbiac, a transit port for materials in which are installed cement mixing plants. The site is indispensable for the port but also for the City of Paris which has classed it as an "Important Urban Service". 280 000 tonnes of materials are carried by waterway every year to Tolbiac (in other words 14 000 lorries less on the streets). The cement plants serve customers within a radius of 6 km.

In the downstream part, the total reshaping of the installations was undertaken in 2002 by Holcim Bétons with the services of Architects Althabegoity-Bayle. 3 million euros were invested by the industrial company, double the average cost of a mixing plant. The main arrangements selected for the reduction of the impact on the environment were construction on piles to reduce land surface occupation by 40%, supply by barges, measures for the reduction of sound and dust emissions, closed circuit working to reduce the consumption of water and wastes, and rain-water treatment. This environmental integration is closely linked with the architectural integration of the plant in the urban landscape, notably in the choice of materials. This is completed by an illumination of the site by Frank Franjou to turn it into an industrial monument and an instrument of daily animation throughout the nights and the seasons.

Holcim cement mixing plant © Port of Paris Authority

As for the Port Autonome, they have engaged 5.2 million euros for the restructuring of the site and the development of public spaces with the complicity of architectural cabinet Jérome Treuttel. A second phase of works should start mid 2008 on the upstream part of the port to enhance the existing installations (cement mixing plant and waste refuse recuperation) and to create a public port. But already on the downstream side a pedestrian promenade is now open outside working hours (1700 hrs) and during the weekends. This new mixed urban space, inaugurated last November, fits in with the continuity of the vivacity and leisure activities already proposed on the 2.1 hectares of the Port de la Gare, but also with the future development of the 3.5 hectares of the Port d'Austerlitz site.

In the Port d'Austerlitz are to be found the last example of port docks "on the water" in Paris: the Magasins Généraux, buildings very representative of industrial port architecture of the early 1900s. It has finally been decided to preserve and rehabilitate these warehouses. Part of them has been sold by the Port to the City of Paris. In March 2005, they selected the project "Docks de Paris" of the Caisse des Dépôts / Icade G3A grouping, associated with architects Jakob and MacFarlane. In one part of the buildings, "Docks de Paris" will house a cultural activities and leisure centre based around the "Cité du Design et de la mode". Works started in 2006 for a planned opening in 2008. The existing concrete building will be enveloped by a "glass skin" asserting the desire to open onto the river, an opening that will reinforce the plant covered roof that will also be an activity area.

The "Docks de Paris" © Port of Paris Authority

© Port of Paris Authority

On their side, Port de Paris will undertake the reorganisation of all the open areas (quay and water area) prior to beginning, between 2009 and 2012, a high environmental quality rehabilitation of the Customs House, the Waterway transport House and sheds 1 & 2 of the former Magasins Généraux. These will house offices and an area for logistics. Indeed the Port also intends to create new port activities on this site: A logistics area for urban parcels distribution, but also a river passenger terminal which should be operational in 2008, an area for pleasure boats and a transit quay for the transit of spot cargos.

Integration and blending of activities, solutions exist to make port cities lively and with port activities giving a heart beat to the city.

The Port of Paris and the City of Paris are members of IACP
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