The UIA International Competition for the Architectural and Landscaping Conversion of the Submarine Base of Lorient (France)

摘要

With purpose the re-utilization of the building volume and of the overall facilities of the Lorient Keroman WWII U-Boat submarine base, the French Ministry of Defence together with the French Navy and the city of Lorient following the official closing of the base in 1995, called upon the International Union of Architects (UIA) to organize in 1999 an international ideas competition for the re-conversion of the base to sustainable civilian uses. We examine the evaluation process and criteria which were used to select the wining proposal. The first three prizes with their associated solutions presented special architectural interest and innovations which we describe in some detail. Although the UIA competition criteria were followed by the winners and the project eventually became a success story as the implemented solution today employs hundreds of local citizens to civilian activities around the theme of the sea, the museum and the new mall shops, restaurants and cafes, it is worth noticing that the first prize faced some unexpected resistance from the local public because the local population refused the directive of erasing traces of the cultural heritage of the historical past of the region.