From the hygienist architecture’s legacy to an eco-neighborhood: the case study of SaintVincent-de-Paul hospital complex in Paris
Résumé
Over the last years the interest in the notion of eco-neighbourhood had grown internationally with a multitude of projects implemented worldwide. Focus on this topic, the article aims to highlight some questions connected to eco- neighbourhood projects in historic urban context by reviewing and discussing a specific case study: the Saint Vincent- de-Paul eco-neighborhood in Paris. An ancient hospital complex, characterized by an important and stratified architectural heritage asset, the project is intended to become the first carbon-neutral and resilient neighborhood of the city. This raises the question of how to combine hospital typology and hygienist architecture with these high standard sustainability goals. The paper intends to investigate the role played by the hospital architectural legacy, by analysing spatialities, dimensions and the typology. To this end, the article underlines compatibilities and conflicts between the characteristics of the early modern health architecture and the sustainability solutions. Our results show that it is not always easy to find a balance between the sustainability ambitions and the character of the original building fabric, even if Saint Vincent-de-Paul’s sustainable adaptive reuse potential is high.