Key information
10 hectares of industrial wasteland
30 meters high
450 meters maximum
8 operators
12 runways built in 1925
Michelin Group
Michelin reinvents itself, future Quartier des Pistes
100 years of history, what now? Quartier des Pistes, Michelin’s iconic industrial site, is getting a new lease of life. From the outset, the right questions had to be asked: what kind of history should be embodied? What direction to conceive a coherent district? Rehabilitation without destruction? Greening to clean up? In 2028, this 10-hectare former industrial site will become a new living district open to all, driven by local players and focused on environmental issues. Positioning, programming, masterplanning, development, urban design. Since 2021, Saguez & Partners has been working with the Michelin Group on this unique project for a major industrial group, which will raise the city’s profile locally, nationally and even internationally.
Michelin is Clermont-Ferrand. Clermont-Ferrand is Michelin.
In Auvergne, we all know someone who works or has worked for Michelin. With its headquarters and factories right in the heart of Clermont-Ferrand, the group has become the industrial and economic heart of the city and region. But in the early 2000s, industrialization and the dawn of new technologies led to the closure of several Michelin plants. In 2021, the group called on Saguez & Partners to revitalize its century-old site, the **Quartier des Pistes. **
An adventure of this scale requires the strength of a collective, so the agency set up and led an assistant project ownership consortium with Saguez Favretto (architect), Setec (multidisciplinary engineering group), Atelier Frank Boutté (environmental design), Christian Laporte (heritage architect), Asphalt (architect and urban planner) and Atelier Format Paysage (landscape gardener).
Quartier des Pistes: 100 years of history, what now?
Today, silence reigns. But just a few years ago, it was still bustling here. Built in 1925, the 10-hectare Quartier des Pistes housed a dozen buildings for R&D, production and tire storage. It closed its doors for good in 2001. At the northeast entrance lies Les Pistes, the town’s emblematic buildings. It was there that tires were tested, mounted on lead-weighted carts. 450 meters long, 30 meters high for the largest, all in reinforced concrete... A jewel of innovation at the time, unique in the world. In 2028, this mythical district of Clermont-Ferrand will be given a new lease of life.
A collection of manifesto posters, inspired by the strong color codes of the factories, and a way of life!
A springboard for active cultures
The future Quartier des Pistes will stimulate minds and bodies, shake up neurons, stimulate taste buds and get everyone’s attention with a program that combines physical exercise and cultural discovery in a playful, accessible and inclusive way, to learn and grow in motion. Saguez & Partners helped Michelin select the local operators who will make up the future district:
- Green City and Parc des Pistes: 3 hectares planted by Michelin.
- Michelin Adventure Museum.
- Cité du Mouvement, with the ASM Omnisports and the Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital.
- The Halle, concert hall and gourmet travel venue, with Les 2 Amis.
- Hotel, housing and local shops, with Vinci Immobilier.
A manifest identity: the Quartier des Pistes’ posters
How do you tease and win people over in a new place undergoing transformation during a long period of construction? How can we tell a common story and unite all the players around this project? The agency came up with a pop, graphic identity that contrasts with the concrete buildings. A reinterpretation blending architecture and geometric forms: shed roofs, metal structures, cubes and levels.