• An entirely commercial area with its stack of "shoe boxes" since the 1960s and 1970s, Mérignac-Soleil developed a new urban model and welcomed its first inhabitants.

  • The district must also be "stripped" to make more room for nature.

  • The arrival of the tramway in the sector for the beginning of 2023 should also change the modes of travel.

Ten years after the first rehabilitation studies, the Mérignac Soleil district welcomes its very first inhabitants.

Commercial area typical of the 1960s and 1970s, with its pile of "shoe boxes", the district intends to reinvent itself: place for the calming of traffic, the mix with housing and services, and the "renaturation » floors.

The mayor of the city, and president of Bordeaux Métropole, Alain Anziani promises here 14,000 trees, gentle paths and two parks by 2030. A green and peaceful vision which should make the Mérignac Soleil project a model of the "city of tomorrow ".

The project has also just been selected as part of the call for expressions of interest (AMI) national "sustainable city demonstrator".

In the meantime, the area is a veritable battlefield, and between diggers, cranes, ripped asphalt and the development of the tramway, clearing your way through it is an obstacle course.

It's hard to imagine the green setting promised on the brochure.

Housing at 2,500 euros/m2

“It may seem surprising to say that we are going to live in Mérignac Soleil, yet the project does indeed involve 2,800 housing units by 2030,” explains Amandine Lasvacas, director of the Habiter program at La Fabrique de Bordeaux Métropole (La Fab).

After an initial delivery of a few dozen housing units, the first large phase is scheduled for the end of 2022-early 2023. Thus, the site of a former car dealership will make way for 300 housing units, the Castorama block will accommodate 386 housing units... In total , some 6,000 inhabitants are to settle in this area.

There should be approximately 60% social housing - including 35% rental housing, 12.5% ​​social accession housing, and 12.5% ​​at a controlled price of 2,500 euros/m2 - and 40% free housing.

On the urban model, “we overlap two structures, explains Jérôme Goze, deputy general manager of the Fab: housing on the floors, and commerce at the base.

If the major brands will remain present, and the district will remain very commercial, the arrival of residents will also involve the installation of local shops.

A ratio of one tree/16 m2

The metropolis's first urban heat island, this huge 69 ha patch, 90% paved, will gain 20% “renaturation”.

"It's huge" assures Jérôme Goze.

“The city of tomorrow will be crushed by the heat, continues Alain Anziani, in 2035, Bordeaux will have the temperature of Seville, it is absolutely necessary to plant trees to cool the city.

“This first involves stripping, depollution, then the next step will be to plant a mix of trees, with a ratio of one tree/16 m2,” adds Amandine Lasvacas.

Finally, there is the question of mobility.

Local authorities are betting a lot on the extension of line A of the tramway which will go to the airport in early 2023, and which will make an incursion into Mérignac-Soleil.

"This will provide residents with alternatives so that they no longer take their car" aims Alain Anziani.

"Reduce the space of the car"

However, between signs that capture a highly motorized clientele, and residents who will not necessarily work on site, the area allocated to the car will not decrease that much.

The proof: there is always one parking space per dwelling, and the size of the car parks of large surfaces will not decrease.

“However, the ambition is to reduce the place of the car, slowly but surely, assures Jérôme Goze.

We are going to support the changes in the economic model that are underway: the major groups are carefully scrutinizing everything related to e-commerce, and we can imagine that there will be more and more home deliveries.

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Failing to disappear completely, the “no parking, no business” model is undergoing an evolution.

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