The 6.5 ha Commercial Area (ZAC) runs along the Ourcq Canal and aims to promote unique living quarters on the waterfront. It combines housing, shops, offices and schools. This former industrial harbor area used to be remote, and suffered from a lack of visibility from the nearby downtown.
The challenge of this development is to create a strong signal at the Pointe plaza, so that it becomes the great plaza of the city of Pantin. Suitable for local uses and circulation, the plaza creates continuity along the canal and visually connects this area to the downtown area, to give it a nighttime image that is both attractive and easily spotted in the canal perspectives.
The quays are treated consistently, with specific poles. The pedestrian paths that connect the waterfront to the Jean Jolivet Avenue are equipped with luminous, direct lighting columns. The Pointe Plaza is illuminated thanks to specific 17-meter high poles reminiscent of the industrial past of the site, equipped with projectors that create layers of light on the ground and luminous graphics through different kinds of beams.
The tall pole principle used allows freeing up the space of the Pointe, to foster temporary or event-related occupation of the plaza.