Eco Quartier Chalucet: Creativity & Knowledge district renewing the heart of the city of Toulon
About this good practice
The Chalucet project is part of the National Urban Renovation
Program (PNRU) implemented by TPM in the territory - with
cross-financing.
Urban planning that respects heritage (the right choice for
architects).
Built on the former site of the Chalucet hospital (18th century),
the Chalucet eco-quartier is a real living space where a library,
with exhibition rooms and an auditorium, the Higher School of
Art and Design, the Kedge business school and the Camondo
Méditerranée international school of design and architecture, a
business incubator, the social center of the Departmental
Council and an apartment building. The district covers 3.5
hectares with a brand new garden on the grounds of the
historic 18th century garden.
The beneficiaries are citizens, students, start-ups...
Local authorities are the funding bodies: Departemental
Public Authority (Var, France), City of Toulon, Chamber of
Commerce and Industrie, Toulon Provence Méditerranée.
Resources needed
Cost : 120 millions d’euros, 4 years of studies and buildings
Different departments of the city of Toulon and the Metropolis are
involved in the life of the project: green spaces, building maintenance, higher education, economic development, cultural affairs, etc...
Evidence of success
- Labeled Ecodistrict by the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion and
Relations with local authorities and the Ministry of Ecological
and Inclusive Transition. This label rewards its environmental
exemplarity in terms of sustainable urban development and
energy transition
- Working together urbanism and natural sites in an historical
AND innovating way
- 1200 students attending, open areas open to the public
(difficult to quantify but the renewed area is now part of the city
as a main area).
Potential for learning or transfer
The metropolis has put in place a strategy to support urban renewal, with the aim of transforming neighbourhoods or sectors of the city with creativity issues to make them more attractive.
The project has a real impact in the city area: for students in brand new buildings, for starts-ups gathered in incubators, for the public which benefits from renovated public spaces, new and old buildings and gardens.
Replicability: any City with the idea to have a strategy reliying on creative purposes, provided that public cross-fundings will allow to implement it in the best and sustainable conditions.
The project is designed to last due to specific activities such as schools.
What is innovating is to gather various thematics on creativity in a desherited area; it is also to include in the same project ancient buildings (cultural heritage), new buildings (architecture) and new designed natural spaces (natural heritage), including strong environnmental issues.
Further information
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.