Client

Syndicat Mixte Sophia Antipolis

Project manager

Alfred PETER Paysagiste, Reichen & Robert Architectes Urbanistes, CITEC et Franck BOUTTÉ

Dates

2011-2014

Cost of the study

€ 18 700 exclu. VAT

Nature of the mission

Framework agreement for creating the master plan and the pre-operational study for the strategic sector

Surface area

250 - 300 ha

Sophia Antipolis is a top research, business and education centre set in a remarkable wooded and hilly Mediterranean environment. It is hard to find…

This feeling is linked to its unsignposted access system. This technology park is highly congested and given over to cars which  ends to isolate it and becomes an obstacle to social life. The specific nature of such an exceptional site is lost and the technology park’s future seems weakened.

Ensure the future of the scientific city

Only a smooth and efficient public transport network will allow Sophia Antipolis to make its mark. The Reichen/Peter team therefore imagined bus rapid transit routes to create new accessibility for the city and to allow the centre to develop into four additional networked living hubs: Trois Moulins, le Fugueiret, la Cité du Savoir and les Clausonnes.

Looking at it the other way: from protection to appreciation of an exceptional natural setting

Almost all the land around the rapid transport bus loop is protected woodland or forest-fire protection zones, which tends to stagnate it.

The urban project was set up around public transport, and its ambition requires that the city be looked at the other way round: these natural spaces will now lie at the heart of the four living hubs, and will bring real change to them.

A third Departmental park should be created to back up the Natural Parks of la Valmasque and la Brague, so Sophia Antipolis will be able to wear a great green crown more than 1500 hectares around.

By improving the route network, the Fugueireit Departmental Park will become an active connector between the four surrounding living hubs.

The development of sports and relaxation activities in this large natural core will establish the attractiveness of an internationally renowned campus.