Location

The Ponsonne neighborhood is located between the town’s SNCF train station and its historic center. The area is crossed by the Riou des Couquières, one of two rivers that run through the town. It lies within the Action Cœur de Ville intervention area of Manosque and is part of one of the town’s two Priority Urban Areas, namely the eastern priority urban neighborhood.

History

The Ponsonne neighborhood takes its name from a farm belonging to the Ponson family, who settled in the area in the early 19th century. The Ponsonne farm building still exists today but is integrated into a project by developer Oasis Promotion.

The Gassaud castle, dating back to before 1815, is another historic site in the area. At the beginning of the 20th century, it housed a hotel-restaurant that catered for miners from the Gaude mine and railway workers. In the 1960s, the hotel’s original tennis court inspired the construction of the current indoor tennis courts in the Sports Park. Today, the Gassaud castle has been repurposed as social housing by UNICIL, preserving its main building, chapel, and part of the former hotel’s park.

The Villa Paradis was acquired by the city in 1962 and converted into a Children’s Center, and the local school was built on the same plot.

The Mûriers housing estate, south of the Sports Park, includes 30 terraced houses around a central communal space. Designed by Georges Candilis and built in 1962–63 for employees of CEA Cadarache, this housing estate was listed as Architecture Contemporaine Remarquable (notable modern architecture).

Additionally, a swimming pool was built on the site in the early 1950s, featuring two outdoor pools, but was demolished in the 1990s.

Orientations

The town has recently implemented a strategy to revitalize Manosque’s town centre through the Action Cœur de Ville program and the Opération de Revitalisation du Territoire (ORT) scheme. Major works were thereby initiated to improve housing, boost commercial offerings, and expand provision of public amenities, particularly culture and leisure facilities, to better meet residents' needs. Historical and heritage qualities of the old town center have been a cornerstone in this strategy.

In this context, the redesign of the Ponsonne Sports Park aims to enhance quality of life, encouraging public use while promoting nature in an urban environment. The area’s natural and landscape assets are to be showcased. This project aims to link the challenges of ecological transition and social cohesion, aiming to provide under-26-year-olds with the means for greater autonomy at all levels, in line with the objectives of the town’s 2024–2030 development plan.

This project should also help to solve the current problems of congestion in terms of mobility and parking, by developing active transport and rethinking links between the station and the town centre. It is therefore necessary to give space back to pedestrians, and to encourage active transport by reaffirming the greenway that has already been started from the town center towards the train station.

Progress report

Manosque's city center is undergoing a significant transformation. The Place de l’Hôtel de Ville has already been completed, and the top section of Avenue Jean Giono is currently under redevelopment. Other squares in the historic center are set for renovation by the end of 2025.

Adjacent to the Ponsonne Sports Park, several housing developments are underway. Gassaud castle, east of the stadium, was recently converted into social housing for students and families, while the northern suburban area is subject to a project for up to 120 new apartments by 2027. The long-term conversion of the St. Joseph area, south of the railway tracks, is also planned to include residential and commercial spaces (about 350 housing units).

In terms of transport, the SNCF train station is set to become a multimodal transport exchange, with a new public car park to be completed in September 2024. Additionally, a bike path was established between Porte Saunerie of the historic center and the Couquières greenway in 2023.

The provision of facilities is currently being renewed through several projects. In the western priority urban neighborhood, the creation of a community centre (with the town’s CCAS and a branch of the departmental CMS) and the construction of a multimedia library and a dojo is to be undertaken. Additionally, the local authority aims to submit a proposal in March 2025 to create an educational campus for its schools located in the priority urban neighborhood.

The project to redesign the Drouille park, which complements the Sports Park project, is also underway. This project includes the restoration of the riverbanks along the entire length of the two rivers, with this scheme being overseen by the conurbation.

The project site

The project site is centered around the Riou des Couquières, one of the two rivers running through the town. This is a true sports field, housing a variety of facilities and grounds, with the Adrien Gilly municipal stadium as the largest installation. It includes 7 tennis courts, 2 outdoor multi-sport fields, an archery range, and a skate park, and is crossed by a greenway connecting the new bike path to Rue des Mûriers and the SNCF station.

Initial ideas for programming

First and foremost, the project aims to upgrade and restructure the facilities of the Sports park from a technical point of view by introducing new practices and uses. Thus, the Adrien Gilly municipal stadium is set to become the heart of a space dedicated to collective activities. The stadium itself, which includes a main football pitch with natural grass, two stabilisé (self-binding limestone gravel) pitches, and a 400-meter athletics track with a steeplechase water jump, will undergo a complete renovation. This renovation will involve expanding the grandstands and transforming the current clubhouse into offices and sports spaces. The two outdoor pitches may be redesigned to accommodate seven-a-side football. The historic tennis facility, which includes two indoor courts and six outdoor courts (three with Green Set and three with synthetic grass), should also increase its capacity. Additionally, new recreational uses are planned for the currently less developed area of the site to enhance the park's appeal for all audiences (such as a pump track, children's play areas, etc.).

The second key aspect of the project involves the ecological restoration of the riverbanks of the Riou des Couquières, which is intended to help prevent flood risks. DLV Agglo, under its GEMAPI (Management of Aquatic Environments and Prevention of Flooding) responsibilities, is leading this project, which must be fully integrated into the site's development.

Finally, a thorough consideration of active transport is expected within the project's framework to help alleviate congestion in the old town and improve connections between the center and the train station.

The ambitions of the project

Faced with aging facilities and evolving demands of clubs and associations regarding their development needs, the town is undertaking a fundamental restructuring of its installations on the Ponsonne site with this project, aiming to provide modern sports facilities that meet the town’s ambitions. To achieve this, the project relies on existing infrastructures, prioritizing refurbishment over reconstruction, and seeks to maximize usage to accommodate all sports and recreational practices: both leisure and competitive activities, whether individual or collective, supervised or free. Ultimately, the new Sports and Leisure Park will serve as a means to combat social and spatial segregation, attracting users from other neighborhoods in the town and the greater urban area: young people, families, seniors, and so on.

The second goal is to enhance climate resilience by incorporating flood risk management through the restoration of the Riou. The project will balance usage density with ecological preservation and biodiversity promotion. Additionally, the town plans to leverage building upgrades for solar energy production, targeting a Silver rating for the Mediterranean Sustainable Buildings certification for the renovation of existing structures.

• How can we transform an aging sports facility into a landscaped park, open to a new range of sports and recreational uses for all? 
• How can a recreational, green space be used as leverage for the transformation 
of urban priority neighborhoods? 
• How can we balance the ecological quality of the site with an expected increase in visitor numbers due to more attractive sports facilities? 
• How can we design the development not as a static space but as a living, evolving space enriched over the seasons and years, especially with regards biodiversity? What indicators should be set to monitor the environmental quality of the site in the years following project completion? 
• How can we maximize alternatives to car use in an urban area like Manosque by developing efficient, appealing active-transport solutions? To what extent could 
a public transport infrastructure using active modes address this challenge?