le vauclin, martinique


The town of Le Vauclin finds itself in a period of growth and diversified expansion. For a small town the dilemma is to maintain its character and culture in the face of a new economic definition and the accompanying social transformations. We have sought to propose methods or systems which reinforce and enhance the qualities which define Le Vauclin today and its projected future state by accentuating the town’s inherent structure through a socially based proposal.

The study of Le Vauclin reveals the dispersal of the urban fabric as well as a rather anarchic extension of the town through its newer neighborhoods. The entirety of the town suffers a lack of hierarchy of public spaces as well as circulation routes. The relation of built space to public space is not sufficiently well defined to give an urban identity to the town. The links between the divers elements of the town - infrastructure, housing, downtown, new neighborhoods - appears fragile. These problems are not limited to the town center, but exist beyond the competition site’s limits, particularly in reference to the anticipated development of tourism.

The objectives of the urban proposal is therefore to modify the structure of the town through three main tactics:

•the redefinition of the urban fabric and the emphasizing en of the town’s infrastructure.
•the creation of a network of lateral connections which would decentralize and reconnect the dispersed neighborhoods and public facilities.
•the placement of specific programmatic activities at the crossings of the circulation axes.