The Air Liquide site is part of the historical geography of the Saclay plateau, which used to supply water to the gardens of Versailles by conveying its flow of rainwater via the nearby Buc aqueduct. In the 18^th century, the Versailles estate became a focal point for world botanical research, especially with the Jussieu dynasty. While it is a relatively recent creation (the 60s), the park in Air Liquide’s property is a living testimonial of those plants which were brought back in the luggage of travelling botanists and of their horticultural creations (Atlas cedars, Canadian thujas, purple beeches side by side with common ash, oaks, maple trees, plane trees, chestnut trees etc.), and which symbolise the diverse origins of the company’s employees. This tree compilation will be sponsored on a worldwide scale by researchers hailing from across the globe who work at Air Liquide. In addition, botany has been an extraordinary source of inspiration for science, particularly the role of photosynthesis in gas transformation processes.
The landscaping project will introduce rainwater management, of the order of 4,000 cubic metres to be stored in clay soil, implying a composition that will take advantage of that constraint: forming pools and channels as a nod to the Versailles waterworks. The excavated earth, mostly containing clay and buhrstone, will largely be reused on site by building rammed earth walls and ledges covered in buhrstone cladding.
Lastly, the project will put the spotlight on the Air Liquide company’s special features, using powerful elements that can represent it throughout outdoor spaces:

• The company’s effective environmental awareness
• The company’s relation to air

The site where the aquatic centre and the gymnasium are established is located at the city limits between a low-rise residential neighbourhood, a school campus and the countryside.
The creation of a car park for users of the sports facilities aims at structuring the multiple traffic streams (pedestrian zones, bike lanes, light vehicles and bus lanes), at encouraging soft mobility throughout the town in connection with the GR 39 “Grande Randonnée” long-distance footpath, and at providing comfortable waiting areas near the facilities.
The landscaping makes use of both buildings according to the various pedestrian streams in keeping with a primary North-South axis (the busiest one) and a secondary East-West axis (not so busy), by creating roomy footpaths. The car park was split into two parking sections (North and South) so as to cover both the swimming pool and the gymnasium.
The main car park to the North is lined with a tall maple collection. The fact that those trees were planted asymmetrically helps to soften the straight lines required for parking and will ultimately provide the car park with a forest atmosphere.
The overall growth of the trees clears the view over the sports hall’s architecture, thereby highlighting the building.
Lawns dotted with maple trees, oaks and shrubberies as well as park benches offer comfortable places to wait in the vicinity of the swimming pool entrance.

Feedback (last visit in 2016)

• The soil-covering plantations are having difficulties in getting a foothold.
• A few adjustments are to be expected and are covered by the “perfect finish” guarantee.
•  The site is popular with students any time the sun is shining during the lunch break.

This project is part of the development of the R&D centre in the huge, totally artificial industrial estate surrounding the airport. The building plot is one of the rare planted areas within the sector. The project strategy is focused on substantial tree-planting, in a bid to compensate, as much as possible, for the required felling, and to recreate a “semi-wild” area that is more of a bushland than a garden.
Plantation will occur in the vicinity of the building and on the rooftop, sloping from the ground to the ridge of the machine house. This will result in a genuine artificial “hill” where the project will produce a botanical gradient combining spruce groves and bushland.
The palette will feature a xerophile Mediterranean flowering procession, typical of bushland and suitable where water is scarce. Only the rooftop will have an integrated watering system.

This forecourt is part of a strategy to display a street side profile featuring the renewal of the administrative building and of the new media library/multi-purpose venue intended for both the school and the town.
We chose an aesthetic approach that tells of an exotic journey through the travelling world of the famed Doctor Félix Le Dantec, and which takes advantage of the Lannion region’s very gentle micro-climate.
The project has turned the forecourt into a raised platform, an urban plaza suited to the welcoming of visitors to the school and the media library. Its configuration provokes an incentive to slow down, successfully meeting the demand for a “landscaped” area through a network of flowerbeds dotted with shrubs, shimmering perennials and local pink granite blockfield.
The area to the back of the school was refurbished into a clearly marked car park, in a bid to optimise the space.
The front of the school now features a kiss & ride/bus stop zone and provides a new land limit indicated by a discrete fence that blends in visually with the plantations.

Feedback (last visit in 2014)

• Thanks to the sheer bulk of perennials and fine growing conditions overall, the result was highly spectacular as early as summertime in the initial year of plantation.
• The reinforced asphalt, being too heavily spread on the road (managed by the Lannion municipality), has suffered some light wear and tear.
• The area appears to be well attended and popular among the students.

The project consisted, in the short term, in landscaping the vicinity of a cultural centre, and of a gymnasium in a subsequent second lot. Located at the town’s entrance, the land has a significant slope. Landscaping the outdoor spaces was an opportunity to highlight the facade as seen from the access road into the municipality and to unify the site’s existing facilities, namely the school, playgrounds, cemetery, Indochina War memorial, pool and town centre. The land was remodelled into a succession of plateaux bordered by banks or ditches to collect rainwater so it flows into the Indochina War memorial pool. The plateaux enhance the dramatic view over the surrounding valleys and countryside.
The immediate vicinity of the existing and future facilities was unified by treating the ground with stabilised soil, reviving the original village atmosphere and enhancing the existing architectural relics (a fountain and a bread oven). The tree plantations mainly include oaks, to replace the local horticultural varieties which had been making the area very commonplace.

Feedback (last visit in 2014)

• The municipality has produced attractive line patterns of flowery prairies. It is simple, clever and effective.

The project consisted in helping in the creation of a youth centre and social centre in a municipality of the Nantes conurbation.
Located in the town centre, the land was a chance to re-establish a link with the surrounding public facilities and neighbourhoods. To that end, we used the plot’s largest dimension in order to create a perspective that would highlight the town’s church tower. It touches on the existing primary school and the town hall to the north-east of the plot, while the buildings run along the edge of the forest.
The land was remodelled so as to reduce the initial feeling of confinement afflicting the site, so that it now has a facade overlooking one of the municipality’s main thoroughfares.
The technical areas were handled following an environmental approach that limits any waterproofing treatment:

• A holding ditch was created, enhancing a dock-like effect alongside the building. It collects rainwater from the roof and all waterproofed outdoor surfaces so as to avoid overloading the existing network, which is close to saturation.
• Grassy car parks were made, using a mix of earth and stone for daily use.

Feedback (2012)

• Our observation of this first experience in grassy car parks is that the most utilised spots (kiss & ride) were unable to resist the heavy use and so were replaced with standard asphalt. The more remote spots and those used by the teachers resisted much better.
• The initial landscaping has been heavily modified and has thus irremediably lost all of the interest it once had!

The landscaping of the lower playground at the Lycée Félix Le Dantec secondary school was part of a larger consideration regarding the renewal of the entrance and the main playground, to be carried out over a period of several years.
The diagnosis performed on the sector showed that the plane tree plantations, poorly done at the time, were preventing the trees from growing harmoniously. In addition, the area was under intensive use by the students on account of the nearby foyer/cafeteria. There was also a need to restructure a pool (permanently empty for safety reasons) and some concrete low shoring walls.
In the first place, the landscaping consisted in thinning out the plane tree plantations by removing half the trees and enriching the soil with substrate in order to provide more light and improve tree growth.
The former pool was turned into a stage by covering it with a deck made of exotic wood. The podium hosts student events and cultural groups: music, theatre, dance etc. The remaining soil was levelled without changing the rainwater collector network (to save costs) by using pink granite gravel.
Lastly, the low walls were turned into exotic wood seating, forming an amphitheatre that can host an audience on three levels of seating during shows.
The seating is also used day-to-day as long, friendly benches for recess periods.
Additional natural blocks of granite have been positioned in such a way so as to obey current safety regulations regarding the risk of falls from great heights.

Feedback (last visit in 2014)

• A few of the boards making up the stage are getting loose and should be repaired.
• The plane trees were ultimately trimmed too thoroughly.
• The space appears to be well used and appreciated by the pupils.