News: OMA to strategize new housing in Bordeaux

OMA announced in its website to have been selected by the Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux (CUB) to develop a strategy for the introduction of 50,000 new housing units across 27 communes.

Bordeaux sprawl. originally appeared on OMA.

The strategy will seek ways to achieve density, mixed use and accessibility for the new housing over a territory of 550 square kilometers, allowing Bordeaux to absorb population growth in a sustainable way. At the same time, the scheme must develop density without being necessarily urban.

With the completion of the LGV (or Ligne grande vitesse) in 2016 that will link the city to the capital of Paris in only 2 hours, The Communauté urbaine de Bordeaux envisions major improvements in its local transport system. Communication between Bordeaux and Paris as well as Bordeaux and Spain will be facilitate. Two questions raise. The first one concerns the problem of the urban sprawl that impacts deeply the territory which is planning to develop 50,000 new homes for 120,000 new inhabitants. The urban sprawl is the outcome of a 40-year-old urbanization strategy which advocates cars and private housing as a standard and generates destructive and expansive growth — a strategy that reflects urbanism of 20th Century. To accompany the improvement of public transport, this new master plan will try to reduce urban sprawl to ensure best living conditions for Bordeaux's inhabitants. Yet this poses the question of sustainability that must be the major guarantee.


This is the mission of OMA and French collaborator Clément Blanchet who is associate in charge of OMA's French projects. OMA will attempt to propose a new urban vision for Bordeaux by exploring issues of density, mixed use and accessibility for Bordeaux's new and current inhabitants. OMA will work in collaboration with landscape designer COLOCO, sustainability adviser ELIOTH, engineering office IOSIS, and real estate adviser CBRE.