Will EuropaCity ever be built?

Will the EuropaCity project actually be built? It is the big question of the moment. The scheme has come in for heavy criticism, both for its impact on local shops and for its environmental consequences. This is a particularly sensitive point, especially since the European elections, which put ecology at the top of the agenda. In this climate, it is hard to imagine the government taking any risks: it would be incomprehensible to proclaim support for sustainable development while promoting a centre that would consume vast amounts of energy to run a ski slope near Paris.

Image coming soon

As reported by Le Monde, the French government would like to see a new urban development scheme take its place.

Update 1: In an earlier version of this article, we reported that the project content (the project page and project news) had disappeared from the practice's website. However, as one Actuarchi reader pointed out to us (our thanks to them), it has since reappeared. The project page is available at a new address, here. The architects have therefore not buried the project, as we had thought!

Update 2: a few days after this article was published and shared by hundreds of readers, the client officially announced that the project had been abandoned.

It is worth remembering that the Danish practice has not won a single competition in France for several years, despite the recent completion of the Méca in Bordeaux and a rich portfolio of notable projects across Europe.