In 2027, if the construction site is not delayed, the Nantes University Hospital will have left its main site in the city center (Hotel-Dieu site) to integrate brand new premises on the island of Nantes. What will then become of the 18 hectares of land and their buildings? Johanna Rolland (PS), president of Nantes Métropole, had already given some answers during the last municipal campaign, announcing her desire to create a “feeder park” on the spot and to keep the oldest building built in the form of a cross by Michel Roux-Spitz, the architect of the reconstruction of Nantes following the war.
But to go further than these two guiding ideas, Nantes Métropole has decided to submit the Hôtel-Dieu site to the Europan competition, which puts young European architects, town planners and landscape architects to the test.
“We want to open the suggestion box”
The metropolis asks candidates to work on the future of buildings, on future activities (housing? offices? services?), on the place of nature, on links with neighboring districts. They have until July 30 to deliver their vision. The three best projects will be selected at the end of 2023.
Their ideas will be used to “feed the reflection” before the technical studies and a very probable citizen dialogue. “We want to open the suggestion box, to be surprised”, justifies Johanna Rolland, who calls for an “exemplary conversion in terms of ecological transition”.