21st Century (2000–present)

Grenoble Presqu’île

2010s– · France · Western & Central Europe · Ecological, landscape-led, and resilience planning · Planned by Christian de Portzamparc
Plan guide for the Grenoble Presqu'île eco-district and innovation campus, set between the Drac and Isère: new streets and open blocks across the ZAC, with the Synchrotron and river parks.
Plan guide for the Grenoble Presqu'île eco-district and innovation campus, set between the Drac and Isère: new streets and open blocks across the ZAC, with the Synchrotron and river parks. · © Atelier Christian de Portzamparc — used with credit · Atelier Christian de Portzamparc (with Péna Paysages and Florence Mercier), Plan Guide, Grenoble Presqu'île

Core idea

Innovation campus & eco-district

Why it matters

Knowledge-led inner-city growth

Description

The Grenoble Presqu'île plan, developed from the 2010s with Christian de Portzamparc as masterplanner, restructures the peninsula between the Isère and Drac rivers, long occupied by the CEA research campus and related scientific institutions. The plan opens this mono-functional enclave into a mixed eco-district (part of the ÉcoCité programme), combining laboratories and higher education with housing, tram access and public space, and applying ambitious energy and environmental standards.

Significance

Presqu'île is a notable French case of knowledge-led inner-city development, converting a closed scientific campus into an open piece of city. It illustrates the convergence of two strands of contemporary planning — the innovation district and the eco-quartier — and is discussed as a model for mid-sized European cities seeking growth through research economies rather than metropolitan scale.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.