Coline Joly & Betul Sirin & Fabian Winand

The ambition of this project is to propose a territorial strategy that integrates disturbance not as an anomaly to be corrected, but as a lever for transformation. The aim is to connect the traces of past disturbances with the potentials for resilience in the face of future ones, within a logic of re-inscription into the life cycles of the territory.
 
Thus, this project invites a reconsideration of the current approach to spatial planning, which is often characterized by a “tabula rasa” logic in favor of monofunctional projects disconnected from existing dynamics.
Our investigation begins along the Sambre River, whose natural course has been durably altered by the industrialization of the valley, leaving behind “dead arms” which—though cut off from the main flow—have become favorable environments for biodiversity and now require human maintenance, thereby generating new forms of activity.
 
By cross-referencing various land-use data — residential zones, ZACC, and SAR — with three major forms of disturbance — flood hazard areas, polluted soils, and SEVESO zones — we identify spaces under particularly strong constraints, where risks accumulate and the issue of habitability becomes critical. Refining this analysis, we have delineated a major territorial figure, that of “habitability under constraint,” composed of three distinct typologies:
(1) the “Sambre at risk,”
(2) the “village filaments in hazard zones,” and
(3) the “strategic poles.”
 
Each of these requires an architectural and territorial response that is both resilient and deeply rooted in the site’s reality.