Located between Metz and Luxembourg in Lorraine, Le Haut Fourneau d’Uckange is in the heart of a region marked by a heavy industrial and mining past. Since the cessation of activity at the beginning of the 90s, the U4 blast furnace of Uckange dominates 14ha of a vast industrial wasteland dotted with ancillary buildings.
Following the desire to restore a new existence to this industrial mecca (and in the continuity of the “Jardin des traces” realized in 2006, the Mecilor exhibitions or the luminous staging “Tous les soleils”), EPFL Lorraine wished to undertake work initiating an opening to the public and a complete reconversion of the places through the reception of new equipment and programming.
In this context, the mission of designing the U4 Blast Furnace park entrusted to the TER agency consists in proposing a guide plan of the spaces and a mission of project management on all the spaces accessible to the public.
Faced with these uncertainties and following preliminary studies, the TER Agency proposed to compose its development by framing the entire site in the form of plots of 7X35m constituting the basic unit for any implementation of a future project whatever its nature (construction, parking, phytoremediation garden, pending plot etc …).
Materialized by the establishment of more than 500 milestones these plots are crossed by a central path called “Traverse”. The Traverse makes it possible to walk and cross the site by scenographic the industrial character of the place and by composing with the mutable and evolving character of a site whose uses and occupation are currently only anticipated. The Traverse, a real backbone of public spaces, thus strives to stage the visible traces of industrial activity (use of materials from the site, conservation of old coatings and rails, etc. etc.).
Architects: AGENCY TER
Location: Uckange, France
Client: Public Land Establishment of Lorraine
Site Area: 14 ha
Project Year: 2014-2016
Collaborators: AGENCY TER + INFRASERVICES + PROJECTILES + UAE