URBASTUDIOURBANISME & ARCHITECTURE

The former PSA site in Aulnay-sous-Bois is one of the largest redevelopable land reserves in northern Greater Paris. A major legacy of the region’s industrial history, it has gradually been reoccupied through opportunistic moves — logistics facilities, a data center, a geothermal plant, the future operations centre for the Grand Paris Express — all unfolding without an overarching vision. Our mission was to turn this fragmented dynamic into a coherent metropolitan trajectory.

The project builds on what already exists: 85% of the road network is recycled, existing landscape continuities are reactivated, and highly artificialised soils are progressively renatured. This low-carbon approach reveals the underlying structures that can support a more resilient, better connected productive district, firmly linked to its neighbouring municipalities.

The ambition is clear: to transform a monofunctional industrial enclave into an attractive productive territory, where economic activity contributes to urban and environmental quality. The project demonstrates that a business district can become a pleasant place to work, move, eat, meet and circulate — a lively, desirable piece of city, rather than a peripheral backdrop.

To guide this long-term transformation, we developed a flexible yet structuring operational framework, built on a set of urban and landscape invariants: a hierarchical street network, reinforced ecological continuities, public spaces adapted to both productive flows and everyday mobility, and a strong relationship with the future Grand Paris Express station. This framework accommodates opportunities while ensuring the metropolitan coherence required at this scale.

By proposing a progressive transformation path rather than a fixed masterplan, the study offers public and private stakeholders a shared tool to steer the site’s evolution. A new piece of metropolitan territory can emerge here — productive, low-carbon, connected, and aligned with the major urban transitions shaping the future of Greater Paris.