Maine Park project : the Angers river finds again its complicity with town

Till the 26 of January, Le Quai theatre hosts the three strategies of the Maine reconquest banks, a project launched by the Angers town hall which will have to choose the candidate in the coming months. Designed by the Lin team, a European group of architects with offices in Berlin and Paris, "Maine Park" sums up the aim of its authors : to give back to the Maine river along all its length (12 km) a consistency the place has lost with the years.

 
Three goals are pursued by the Lin team. First a better accessibility to the Maine river through its two banks with the evolution, with years, of the express way. Secondly to give to each of the different places crossed by the river a distinct part : city or natural landscape because the choice between a those part is helpful to structure the river. And third to allow the river to spread its water in redesigned banks.
 
The promoters of these ideas leave a large initiative to the city to plan the Maine banks reconquest. Different degrees are possible. Small but important changes of the banks in the centre of Angers thanks to a pontoon and the creation of paths for pedestrians. More important changes are also possible : suppression of slip roads between the express way and the city. A large terrace is set up overhanging the river. The third option called "quantic jump" consists in the complete new design of the express way, the recovery of all passages between city and river and the design of new natural landscapes at the North and the South of the city.