I grands ensembles: processi per abitare le "distanze

The statement Grands ensembles is issued to be used for indicate the new neighborhood with high density population built around the Second World War, when the French government was trying to respond to the growing demand for housing. The term was initially used to identify the morphological system characterized, then it began to indicate low-cost housing for the lower classes. The "mission" of Banlieue '89, in the eighties, has sanctioned an important time for opening of a true disciplinary debate on the state and destiny of the grands ensembles. After the actions and debates promoted by Banlieue '89, the problem of rehabilitation/renovation of the grands ensembles has become central. Many differents laws have been enacted : the law Solidarité et renouvellement urbain (SRU), and the law of Droit au logement opposable (DALO). In 2003, the Agence nationale pour le renouvellement urbain (ANRU) has been founded. Currently the issue of the grands ensembles and their destiny is one of the central themes of the Grand Paris project. The current response to the rhetoric of the demolition are two actions: the "residentialitation" and "remodelage". The residentialisation is based on spatials actions : subdivision of buildings in differents parts to reduce the effect of the off-scale, subdivision and articulation of the space generically collective through the definition of a series of gradual intermediate spaces for filtering progressively the transition from public to private. The most popular projects on residentialisation were elaborated by P. Panarai, who was the first to define this type of intervention. The remodelage, as defined by Roland Castro, consists of interventions to the embeselliment of the architecture of buildings. In both cases, the action of the transformation doesn't include the "dimension time": the resident is the recipient of a project that has the ambition to change his modus habitandi. A third way is indicate in which part from the work of Lucien Kroll. Kroll established, through the development of his work, a key issue : "project as a process" that is able to compare with (confrontarsi con) the dimension time. It is an architecture-process that he calls "incrementalism", according to which the project is interpreted as a dynamic entity in relationship with its context.