Île Seguin

Coordinates: 48°49′25.61″N 2°13′59.67″E / 48.8237806°N 2.2332417°E / 48.8237806; 2.2332417
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Seguin Island in 2011

Île Seguin (Seguin Island) is an island on the

river's right bank, rather than of Sèvres
on the left bank.

During most of the twentieth century, Île Seguin was home to a Renault factory, covering virtually the whole island. The last car from the Renault production line was a 1992 Renault 5 Supercinq. The factory remained dormant until 2005 when all the buildings were demolished.

The architect Jean Nouvel was appointed in 2009 as the lead planner to transform the island into a new cultural hub. The first permanent concert and performance spaces in the project, known as La Seine Musicale, were opened in April 2017. Hotels, large offices, art spaces, and a cinema will follow.[1]

History

Before Renault

Before the seventeenth century the island was owned by the

Abbey of St. Victor
and the land was cultivated by tenant farmers.

The island's importance received a sudden boost at the end of the seventeenth century with the construction of the

aristocrats. In 1747 the palace builder's grandson, Louis XV, acquired the island - then known as the "Île de Sève", on behalf of his daughters.[2] The island found itself renamed as the "Île Madame", and during the pre-revolutionary decades it was home to a commercial laundry
, the "Buanderie de Sèvres".

Under the

Armand Seguin, from whom it takes its name. Seguin became extremely rich, in part by using his island to construct a factory applying a new approach to tanning leather, on an industrial scale.[3]
The island also continued to be home to laundry businesses.

During the closing decades of the nineteenth century, while retaining its industrial businesses, the island also became a leisure destination, used for recreational boating, clay pigeon shooting and angling.[3]

The Renault factory

The former Renault factory

Ford River Rouge Complex was being conceived and constructed.[4]

Renault built his first factory on the island between 1929 and 1934. For the rest of the twentieth century the island's history would be the history of the Renault plant. The factory was self-sufficient, with its own electric power generation facilities and several testing sites including an underground test track. Infrastructure also included dock facilities necessary for taking delivery of bulk supplies and for transporting finished automobiles by river. Billancourt became France's largest factory, employing more than 30,000 people. During the

River Seine to navigate, and suffered from several destructive allied bombings attacks. Renault himself was accused of collaboration directly after the war, and in the frenzied atmosphere of retribution that characterized the post-liberation period he died in prison under suspicious circumstances, and without benefiting from the trial which had been intended for him. His company was placed under the direction of a well-connected resistance hero
, and then, on 15 January 1945 nationalised and renamed "Régie nationale des usines Renault (RNUR)"

France had missed out on the economic recovery that had boosted prosperity in

"Événements"("Events") of May 1968
.

Growth in the 1950s and 1960s enabled Renault to open several newer car plants on greenfield sites in France, Spain and, later, further afield. Rising wages, union militancy (especially in the big car plants of the Paris region) and high employment taxes encouraged the French auto-industry to become a pioneer of automated vehicle assembly and the Billancourt factory, designed for an era of labor-intensive production processes, was hard to adapt to the new techniques. Renault announced in 1989 that the factory would close and Billancourt's last car, a Renault Supercinq, emerged on 31 March 1992. A major clean-up of the buildings began almost at once, but the challenge was formidable, especially with regard to the necessary asbestos removal and soil decontamination. Destruction of the factory buildings began only on 29 March 2004, and was completed on 8 March 2005.

After Renault

In 2004

Francois Pinault proposed to build on the island a private museum, designed by Tadao Ando, to display his Pinault Collection of art. This was cancelled by environmental and planning objections; in 2021 some of the art will be shown at the Bourse de commerce in central Paris.[5]

The architect Jean Nouvel was appointed in 2009 as the lead planner to transform the island into a new cultural hub.[6] The first permanent concert and performance spaces in the project, known as La Seine Musicale, were opened in April 2017. The local community group, Le Collectif "Vue sur l'Île Seguin"[7] argues the undeveloped parts of the island should remain as 'green' and vegetated as possible, given the high density of the surrounding suburbs. They have opposed a large office development planned by Bouygues immobilier (Vivaldi) for the centre of the island, arguing Paris is already oversupplied with office space and the developers are committing "ecocide". Their petition gained 53,000 signatures by 2018.[8]

Bridges

At the time of the factory, the island was accessible from two metal bridges (a suspension bridge designed by Daydé in 1928 linked the island to the right bank of the river Seine and another bridge designed by Seibert in 1931 with the left bank).

The new Renault bridge designed by Italian architect Marc Barani was inaugurated in 2009.

In popular culture

The Renault factory on the island was the inspiration behind the factory shown in the French animated television series Code Lyoko which aired from 2003 to 2007, which housed the supercomputer that the titular digital world was created on underneath it.[9]

References

  1. ^ "L'île Seguin". 25 February 2019.
  2. ^ chronologie de l'île Seguin, sur lemonde.fr
  3. ^ a b c d Île Seguin, histoire (inachevée) d'une longue gestation, de Vincent Renard, CNRS-Polytechnique, décembre 2001.
  4. ^ "The Île Seguin Renault Factory". Architectuul. Architectuul. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  5. ^ Willsher, Kim (17 May 2021). "Billionaire François Pinault fulfils Paris art gallery dream". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  6. ^ Davies, Lizzie (2009-07-08). "Life after Renault: Ile Seguin to become Paris culture hub". The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-08-24.; Palk, Susannah (2010-10-14). "Jean Nouvel to build arts complex on derelict island in Seine". CNN. Retrieved 2010-10-14.
  7. ^ "Home". collectifvuesurileseguin.fr.
  8. ^ "Le Collectif "Vue sur l'Île Seguin" ~ Deux recours gracieux contre deux permis de construire sur l'Ile Seguin".
  9. ^ "Sources of inspiration > The factory in real life". CodeLyoko.Fr. Retrieved 2017-01-11.
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48°49′25.61″N 2°13′59.67″E / 48.8237806°N 2.2332417°E / 48.8237806; 2.2332417

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