The forecourt of the Naves seen from the Quai de la Fosse,

© Arnauld Duboys Fresney

On the interior street of the Naves,

© Arnauld Duboys Fresney

View of the Quai Fran

© Arnauld Duboys Fresney

The banks of the Boulevard Blancho seen from the Georges Clemenceau bridge,

© Arnauld Duboys Fresney

Parc des Chantiers. Restored slipway 3: the yellow Titan crane and the balast gardens, a urban topography,

© Arnauld Duboys Fresney

Quai des Antilles,

© Arnauld Duboys Fresney

The Plan & Guide Map, site survey, January 2007

© Arnauld Duboys Fresney

The Plan & Guide Map, October 2008

© Arnauld Duboys Fresney

The Ile de Nantes is located opposite the historic city, surrounded by the Loire River and home to 13,000 inhabitants. The main objectives of this project were to accommodate the functions of a new centrality for the city, which includes its metropolitan dimension, while taking advantage of the surrounding river in terms of the constructions as well as the transformation of the river banks as promenades. The intervention method tended to focus on the project in situ rather than to initiate an all-encompassing, abstract process and the ‘Plan and Guide Map’ was constantly updated in accordance with the actual progress of the project. The project focused on urban planning, landscape architecture and architectural development on the basis of a few principles: use what exists; use the history of the site to imagine its transformation; consider the site as a resource; and favour a limited level of intervention within the primary aim of saving energy.