Ivry Confluence, a sustainable urbanization project

At the confluence of the Marne and the Seine, at the gates of Paris and the up-river territory of the Seine, Ivry Confluences is a site where much is at stake as it is the focus of a large-scale project as farreaching as the metropolis itself. It involves as much as a fifth of the community territory that is currently hemmed in between the Seine and the railway lines of the Austerlitz train station. It is an area that needs to be developed, made denser and linked to the rest of the city of Paris. Up until the 19th century, Ivry-sur-Seine was a small agricultural community but soon took on the scale of an industrial city by multiplying its population thirteen times in 50 years (1806 - 1856). Immediate access to the Seine, coupled with the arrival of the railway suddenly made Ivry-sur-Seine a strategic sector for development where numerous industries sprang up.