This final master’s project takes place at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris La Villette and its surrounding area.

The project was an opportunity to put inventiveness to the test. A science-fiction scenario was created as a starting point to imagine resilience strategies. In this narrative, all buildings in Paris dating from before 1910 mysteriously burn down and collapse into ruins. In the aftermath, popular uprisings shape the daily lives of residents.

Under the theme of power dynamics, the project explores how the city adapts not only to major fires but also to the question of how the people’s power is represented within the urban fabric. This takes form, first, through the creation of a wall that separates the new city from the rest, serving as protection in a time of vulnerability. The wastelands left behind by the fires are transformed into gathering places: a protest route is established, culminating at the Cité, reimagined as the new Square of Democracy.

The intention is thus to confer upon the site a new quality—one that acknowledges uncertain futures and the need for adaptability.