Through Laure Gentil
Published on
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Sometimes criticized for its architecture, the Brittany Tour in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) has nevertheless become a symbol of the city of the dukes. Closed in June 2020 after the first confinement, this tower of 144 meters high will be completely renovated by 2030. But what are we going to do with it?
“It’s a co-ownership project”
The question can only be asked to co-owners. Geoffroy Petit, development director for the Giboire group (which owns 66% of the Brittany tower) and president of the union council, ensures that the decision will be collective between the different stakeholders. “It’s a co-ownership project. It’s him [le conseil syndical] who today works and thinks about the future of the tower, ”he told Nantes news.
The priority, asserts Geoffroy Petit, remains first of all the rehabilitation of the building after the discovery of asbestos dust, but the co-owners are still thinking beyond, although no specific project has yet been stopped.
The union council is in a process of major renovation (…). Today, we are working on different programming scenarios. The idea is not to start again with a use centered only on desks. We work on components of housing, hotels, shops … The major issue is the “top” that was occupied by Le Nid before. In everyone’s imagination, it must remain a place of collective destination. Maybe not in the same form, but open to all audiences.
According to him, it is “a complex work from a technical point of view (…). “There is a lot of preparatory work with all the stakeholder departments, such as the Bâtiments de France, the city departments, etc.”, he explains. “It’s quite tedious but we hope to reach the end soon. But it is necessary to frame things well. “
The union council hopes to be able to announce the schedule of studies and work “in the first or second quarter of 2022”, announces Geoffroy Petit.
Some numbers
1976: date of construction of the tower
2012: a man parachutes from the 32nd floor
2020: date of closing of the tower
66%: share of the Giboire group
19%: share of Nantes Métropole
10%: share of the developer Lamotte
32: number of floors in the tower
70: number of co-owners
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Big City Life hopes to impose its ideas
L’association Big City Life would like to have a say. Coworking spaces, music studios, resource centers … Nicolas Bénardeau, the director, received project ideas from many Nantes players, he explained.
It started from an article we did, from an April Fools’ Day. There was such an impact on it that we created a call for projects. We received more than 300 responses from cultural actors, associations and independents to build together a cultural and environmental solidarity project.
Nicolas Bénardeau indicates that he was contacted by the Nantes town hall “because they were interested. “” We had a meeting but the file is complex. “
Indeed, since the future of the Brittany tower is in the hands of the building’s co-owners. But Big City Life is not one of them. Nantes Métropole, however, owns 19% of the surface of the tower, and could therefore promote the ideas carried by the association.
“No economic model”
Geoffroy Petit recognizes that the “artistic approach” of Big City Life is “interesting” but regrets “that there is no economic model”. He also affirms that some of the themes proposed by the association “were already at the heart of the discussions of the union council”.
One of the considerations would be to leave, on certain volumes, a range of expression for local project leaders, but it will not be on the entire tower.
“We learned that the work on the Brittany tower was entirely the responsibility of Giboire and that the company therefore has a project for the entire tower”, indicates Nicolas Bénardeau. An affirmation qualified by Geoffroy Petit who assures us that “the work will be financed at the level of what each has”.
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