YES to R-Urban in Colombes! NO to the temporary car park that is planed to replace it! #saveRURBAN
YES to R-Urban in Colombes! NO to the temporary car park that is planed to replace it! #saveRURBAN
Save R-URBAN, an internationally acclaimed professional and citizen initiative of resilient regeneration in Colombes, near Paris, and persuade the municipality and other authorities of the general interest of preserving this project whose main site in Colombes is currently threaten to become a temporary parking.
R-URBAN was initiated by Atelier d’Architecture Autogeree (AAA) to create opportunities for citizen to change their lifestyle and develop resilient activities: saving resources, recycling, energy production, grey water depollution, social economy, eco-construction, urban agriculture,ecological co-housing, green transports, etc…
AAA has started in 2009 several partnerships to develop the first Civic Resilience Units in Colombes (92) funded within the framework of the Life+ programme of Europeen Commission for environmental governance.In this context, the Municipality of Colombes has agreed to host the project and contributed with €240.000 over 4 years (2011-2015). During the same period, AAA managed to secure more than €1.240.000 (including sponsorship from Europeen Community, Ministere de l’Ecologie, Conseil Régional Ile-de-France, Conseil Départemental Hauts-de-Seine, Fondation de France, etc.)
In 2013, the first R-URBAN building Units were finalised in Colombes : Agrocité (Urban Agriculture and Environmental Pedagogy) and Recyclab (Recycling, Social Economy and Eco-construction). Currently several hundred local users regularly develop and run resilience-oriented activities (urban farming, bee keeping, poultry, recycling, eco-design, organic waste processing, etc). Amongst them, dozens of people have been working on the project or have initiated their own jobs. The ecological balance promoted by these initiatives is exceptionally impressive: 6 time reduction of CO2 emission/year for the Agrocité users, 24t/year organic waste recycling, 50t/year water reduction, 3t/year organic vegetable production.
For their innovative ground breaking intiatives, the R-URBAN Units have received international prizes (Zumtobel, Curry Stone, EIB Social Innovation, European Public Space Prize) and attract numerous visitors (professionals, urban stakeholders, students, researchers, political representatives, etc.) regularly coming from other cities in the region as well as from France, Europe and other continents (Harvard GSD, MIT, UCL Londres, U Sheffield, U West Sydney, Municipality of Seoul, Municipality of Montreal, MoMA New York, etc). National and International press including France2, Huffington Post, New York Times, The Guardian, Asahi Shimbun (JP) have published R-Urban, which alongside Freibourg, BedZed, and Hamarby, has now become a global reference point in terms of urban resilience.
In order to start the implementation of these pioneering activities in Colombes, the R-Urban Units were built on municipal land made temporarily available and designed to be relocated on a mid term basis. These temporary locations were proposed by the Municipality of Colombes which was strongly engaged throughout the Life+ contract to guarantee the dissemination and durability of the project.
Suddenly, after the municipal elections in March 2014 and the change of municipal team, the Municipality has asked in June 2014 that Agrocité leave its location without reason given and with no proposal for relocation. Today this decommissioning of the project has been proposed for September 2015, motivated by the municipal team’s desire for the construction of a temporary car park for 2 years.
This decision is even more contestable if we consider that after the 2 years car park the site will remain again without use, as no new project proposed for 2018. In order to find a solution, AAA has mapped several available sites for the alternative parking options, allowing the social and economic development of Agrocité to continue until its relocation, if necessary, after 2018. In a parallel move by the municipality, Recyclab is also being forced to leave by 30 September 2015, without any concrete reason given.
Only 2 months are left to save R-Urban, as an invaluable model of urban resilient regeneration, and convince the Municipality of Colombes of the need to preserve R-Urban and eventually provide a mid term relocation space for the two units in Colombes, when new urban projects will be approved on the existing sites.
We would like to create an international platform of urban resilience, social and economic regeneration, waste reduction, biodiversity preservation and struggle against climate change. International projects such as Public Works in London Hackney Wick and other partners are now ready to create an R-Urban movement on an international scale.
By signing this petition for the preservation of the R-Urban Units in Colombes, you are directly supporting a resilient way of conceiving and practicing urban change.
In addition to signing this petition, you can also:
- spread the campaign
- get friends to write about it in the press
- write letters of support (to be addressed to Mayor of Colombes - nicole.goueta at mairie-colombes.fr, copy AAA - aaa.contact at gmail.com)
- sign the R-Urban Charter and join the R-Urban network
Follow us on
#saveRURBAN / @rurban_
www.facebook.com/rurbancolombes
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