TAST'in FIVES

At Fives, the closure of the metallurgic “Fives Cail Babcock” company in 2001 has been a tremendous shock for the population. Once carried up by the industrial fleuron, the neighbourhood has dramatically declined. With more than 20% unemployment rate (mostly long term); half of the population lives under the poverty level. Young people (half of population is under 30) can meet little job opportunity in the surroundings.   To reverse negative trends of urban poverty in the deprived neighbourhood of Fives and as part of a larger urban brownfield regeneration development, the project aims at (re)introducing productive activities centred on food. At the heart of the brownfield, a building of 2050 m2 has been renovated to host an innovative combination of activities in the fields of urban agriculture, production, culinary transformation and catering.    The project has been able to use food-related activities to seek and leverage against urban poverty. It has also developed prefiguration as a tool to testing a future Food Court in real-life.   Gentrification process is addressed from the start. Also, the existing population is the subject of special attention and is identified as the main target of the activities deployed. This project has integrated all the beneficiaries – and related partners – to co-create the most suitable building and activities for them all.