La Cité Administrative Marianne

The largest administrative complex in France with 18 state departments, 2,000 employees, and more than 20,000 m2 of city nature.

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Salka Kudsk

Project Director, Partner, MA in Strategic Planning, Landscape Architect

Location

Lille, France

Size

20,000 m2 of public space and courtyards

Year

2021 — 2024

Client

The City of Lille and the European Metropolis of Lille

Role

Lead landscape architect

Partners & Collaborators

Bouygues Bâtiment Nord Est, Coldefy, Valode & Pistre, VP Design, Bérim, Inddigo, Elan, Métroergo, SIM Engineering, Setec Bâtiment, 8'18 '', Studios Ingénierie, Bouygues Energy & Services

SLA has designed all public spaces for La Cité Administrative Marianne – Lille’s new state administration city, where 18 state departments will gather in a massive new complex. Here, city nature and buildings are designed to complement each other, creating an inspiring and stimulating work environment centered on well-being, health, and collaboration.

La Cité Marianne is placed on a 400m long site along one of Lille's major highways. The public spaces are designed to alleviate pollution and traffic noise while providing workers and public with green opportunities to meet and relax.

Located on the green belt surrounding Lille, the city’s new state administration campus La Cité Administrative Marianne is designed to dialogue with the city and its surrounding nature. The interministerial campus, which is France’s largest administrative building complex, houses 18 state departments, 2,000 employees, and is designed according to the latest energy and material saving principles.

Green courtyards, lush roof terraces, and generous public spaces pervade the complex and invite nature inside. The nature is designed as local habitats (natural and man-made) to provide a strong Northern France identity.

The site of the new administrative complex is more than 400m long but less than 60m wide at its widest point, placed right against Boulevard de Strasbourg – one of Lille’s major highways.

Like a bastion of biodiversity, the public spaces of the new administration complex will strengthen and develop the natural environment by re-establishing links with the local green ecological networks. Over 3,000 trees are planted, and new local habitats are developed to cover 20,000 m2 of green spaces, courtyards, ecological corridors, and roof terraces.

The landscape reinterprets a series of specific Northern France habitats (natural or man-made): Dunes, forests, bocage, alluvial plains – even terrils and industrial wastelands. The landscape thus provides a strong local atmosphere and a renewed sense of pride in the ecological and historical identity of the Lille region.

Inauguration of the Cité Marianne on Thursday January 18, in the presence of Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, and Martine Aubry, Mayor of Lille.