This urbanisation project (solely devoted to housing) is set within municipal limits, right by the River Seiche which produces substantial wetlands.
A growing environmental awareness has led to a proposal to unify the various areas of ecological concern surrounding the site by maintaining a physical continuity between them:

• Enhancing and integrating existing wetlands into the project by creating new wetlands
• Creating a “semi-wild” strolling area as a transition from the existing urban park to the Seiche riverbanks
• Increasing wooded areas (carbon sinks)
• Gathering as many technical holding basins as possible and using landscaping techniques (gentle slopes, gullies, ditches)
• Restoring the Mécanique brook to open skies in order to reduce its downstream flow
• Supply water to the wetlands and to the Mécanique brook downstream by using the neighbourhood’s rainwater

Meanwhile, special attention is focused on landscaping the borders between public areas and private plots by taking advantage of the existing groves and copses which are still widespread throughout the site.

This operation involves a site on a steep slope (about fifteen metres’ difference in height) bordering a shopping area, a hospital for handicapped adults and an old village centre now absorbed into the municipality of Paimpol. The choice of landscaping highlights the topography and the views across the overall landscape by summoning up panoramic lookouts. The main pathways obey a hierarchy where the landscaping quality is specific to each line of sight. The creation of a network of shared alleyways provides privileged settings on a domestic scale.
A public park is being created, featuring several ranges of heath peat that are particularly suitable to the soil and climate, as well as a wooden children’s playground.
The Chemin de Malabry renewal alongside the project and the renewal of Rue Jacob makes it possible to initiate an urban thread with the existing village and its local shops.
By creating a square at the crossroads of Chemin de Malabry and the new East/West artery, we are enhancing attractive farmyard buildings located on the upper part. The redevelopment of the former Kerpuns sunken footpath, using hedges and shrubs, will soften the impact caused by the closing of the handicapped adults’ social centre, and it will reinstate the original ambiance of this sunken footpath through rural groves.

The municipality of Lannilis has acquired the main nature area enclosing the village to the south. It is a small affluent valley to the Aber Benoît River, combining several wetlands, some of which were damaged when the old village was urbanised.
The project consists in creating four vast rainwater holding basins in keeping with the catchment basin relating to current and planned urbanisation. The aim is to avoid splitting up the management of rainwater through making a small rainwater basin for every urbanisation operation.
Those technical areas are part of an approach to enhance wetland landscapes and to make them easier to get to, both for recreational strolls and day-to-day use. The explorer pathways also act as urban links towards schools and other public facilities from the various (existing and future) housing estates bordering the site.
Old hydraulic structures (a small heritage of washing-places and fountains) present on the site are being restored and enhanced as part of the operation, while more recent facilities like the water treatment plant are being redesigned so as to fit better into the landscape.
The project revives and highlights the wetlands for both environmental and educational purposes, by restoring settings that have been filled in. Planted basins are managed as wetland parks featuring different topologies that are specific to wetlands, like prairies, reed beds and lagoons.

This project is part of the Eco-Faur scheme.

Located in the historic centre of Alençon, the site includes 3 entities: a venerable religious institution teaching deaf-mutes, its outbuildings, and a public square, the whole linked by the bordering Sarthe River.
The facing riverbank will host a planned bus terminal, currently in the design phase and to be completed concurrently to this project (Project-managed by Sogetti).
The intent is to reinforce and encourage urban daily walking (to or from the market, the bus terminal and the shopping strips) as well as providing a setting for events and a tourist presence, especially making use of the continuity to be created along the Sarthe. This was outlined in a guide plan prior to the consultation (with architect Paul Ravaux).
The composition encompasses the predictable logic underlying these kinds of trails, highlighting the surrounding monuments and the traces that show how the Sarthe River and the city have evolved across the site (the former riverbed before it was channelled and the ancient battlements).
We completed a footbridge across the Sarthe River to spare the core of the site and to provide a powerful urban anchor. Made of irregular metal mesh, the footbridge lets through glimpses of the surrounding site, expressing a contemporary take on lace as it generates an intense interplay of light and shade. The footbridge’s metal frame is adorned with small ironwork elements.
To the north of the site there is a phenology garden with white flowers evoking the kinds of floral and leafy motifs that have inspired Alençon lace.
Lastly, the project is also deploying alphabetical sculptures representing sign language patterns (hands made of bronze set in a stand, moulded from the students and teachers at the Providence institution), also translated into braille, as an entertaining tribute the site’s educational past.

Feedback (last visit in 2016)

• Densely veined robinia boards have proven to be ineffective against slippage. This will be resolved by adding a corundum seal.
• Children are spontaneously using the slabs dotting the lawn for games that are half-way between hopscotch and leapfrog
• Children and adults have fun reproducing the letters in French sign language whenever they walk past the hand sculptures.
• The motif used for the footbridge has inspired the design of the municipality’s New Year’s Day cards 2016!

The garden of the Roquelaure Mansion had real potential and featured an interesting collection of trees amidst an architectural setting of very high quality. Yet it had suffered the effects of repeated ad hoc re-compositions lacking any long-term strategy. As a result, the initial garden, done in classical style, had gradually turned into a Haussmannian-style “landscaped” garden, quite unsuitable to the small surface area.

• The undergrowth was dark and lacked sufficient flowers. The composition and the plants were fairly similar to those used in Paris’ Haussmannian squares, like viburnam, aucuba and others.
• At the time, the garden was poorly managed, both technically and aesthetically. The Ministry wanted to open up the garden as part of European Heritage Days. To that end, we designed a temporary exhibition about the Nature Heritage/Cultural Heritage in 2014, and we enhanced the garden for the duration of the event.

A first lot of decorative borders was deployed across from the works to evoke the garden’s nature and cultural heritage: its composition, its tree collection and the featured statues.
A second lot of decorative borders, installations (birdhouses, cisterns, watering systems, chicken coops, sheep, keyhole gardens, insect hotels etc.) and educational events about sustainable development in the garden touched on a variety of issues: biodiversity, waste recycling, water and energy savings, thrifty cultural practises etc. We were grateful to Ministry employees for kindly volunteering to work as organisers during that weekend.
The garden’s re-composition should be gradual and happen in stages. The plants used for the temporary Heritage Days exhibition represented a first step. The garden was also made brighter by adding flowerbeds with light-coloured flowers and foliage.

Feedback (September 2014)

• The large lawn, the Ouessant sheep and the keyhole gardens were the stars of that September weekend!
• Regarding keyhole garden kits, we succeeded in finding an incredible Texan ecological farmer (yes, they DO exist!) who manufactures them. Please contact Mr W. Leon Smith http://keyholefarm.com/2014-september-update-exhibits-schools-deer/ Also be advised that he is currently seeking partners to develop his concept in Europe.
• The garden’s overall re-composition strategy via a management plan has come to a halt, and the available gardening skills are insufficient.

The site used to be a quarry, which was turned successively into a rubbish tip then into a “theatre of greenery” with rugged terrain, located within the Mare aux Moines low-rise residential neighbourhood bordering on Chartres. A housing estate adjacent to the site has failed to find a buyer because the land is polluted, unstable and very noisy on account of the traffic on the orbital bypass. This neglected space, plagued by both the lack of urban connections and the old-fashioned layout was causing the site to be cut off from the outside. Given the need to contain the pollution throughout the site, the project delivered a substantial landscape renewal that completely changed the site’s image. To begin with, it involved entirely taking over the abandoned estate and working to open it up to the outside by creating a host of pathways across the site’s unusual topography, thereby shaping direct links with the neighbourhood. The former amphitheatre was partly filled in, forming a kind of “volcano” open to the sky and to the distant horizon, with a trail around its summit where strollers can enjoy the characteristic vegetation grown inside the crater (bulbs). The slopes feature a basic children’s playground made from local cyclopean rock.
Existing forested areas were cleared, leaving only certain species (wild cherry trees and pine trees). The new tree plantations provide a very singular setting since the chosen colours are not often found in nature, featuring extremely bright foliage (white bark and foliage of gold, pink or mixed hues). The plants were chosen while in their early growth period so they could better adapt to the terrain’s highly delicate conditions. On the other hand, the protections (tutors and netting) were very colourful to provide spectacular visuals right away once the project was completed.
A holding basin was created to buffer the neighbourhood’s rainwater which was causing problems, as well as the water flowing from the park. The basin made it possible to recreate a semi-wild area to show all around that the site had reclaimed its environmental quality.

Feedback (last visit in 2013)

• The limited budget did not allow for very comfortable pathways (natural gravel) for the strollers, who tend to be rather urban (pushchairs, the postman’s bike).
• The children’s games that were initially set up (small rocks with climbing handles) have been replaced since the project’s completion with a more standard playground (set on soft ground and featuring spring-mounted games).
• The very poor condition of the soil is not helping the plants to grow.
• The rainwater filtering basin is functioning perfectly, producing abundant biomass which, however, does not facilitate its upkeep.

The new urban park in Langueux has chosen an approach based upon 5 landscaping requirements that are specific to the site:

• Stage the brook to highlight its geographic continuity towards the sea… this acts as a thread in the exploration of the sheer ecological wealth of the areas which the brook runs through from its spring all the way to the Bay of Saint-Brieuc. In this perspective, the park becomes the “tamed” part in the water’s journey.
• Make good use of the site’s lines of force and faraway vistas: the valley is highlighted by making the spaces converge towards the end of the thalweg. A vast platform underlines the park’s different levels. The site’s longest stretch is enhanced by a major alleyway halfway up the slope.
• Establish clear limits to the surrounding urbanisation by providing marked entrances towards the park: ultimately, denser urbanisation is proposed to assert the street’s urban character. The wood creates a buffer zone with the park’s interior.
• Establish a link between the park and its rural surroundings: On the northern part, farming plots, the wood at the end of the valley; along the brook, a tree-lined corridor reminiscent of an orchard, and a shady garden in the most sheltered part of the valley.
• Bring out an exotic atmosphere in the park’s most urban parts to fit with the nearby existing urban landscaping.

While designing the park, we were led to plan for the construction of the Grand Pré concert hall (Architects T. & J. Mostini) so as to make sure that the building will be suitable to its surroundings and that it will enjoy a quality setting.

http://www.legrandpre.info/le-site-le-parc/

Feedback (last visit in 2015)

• Together with the engineering department and elected officials of the municipality of Langueux, we have been very happy to conduct a yearly follow-up of the park’s progress and management. Every opportunity for a visit is an excuse for all of us to meet and it is a pleasant experience every time.
• The site’s fauna and flora is closely monitored by grassroots groups.
• The engineering department has made nice picnic tables that match the initial park furniture.
• In a smart move, a daycare centre has been built within the park, thus boosting the site’s daily use.
• There are two small concerns: the new playground (made after completion) will ultimately deserve better integration, and the signage at the park entrances is somewhat “demonstrative”.

• The site’s industrial past: the presence of water (which was the reason for the paper mill in the first place) led to the creation of hydraulic devices. The project brings out how the water was tamed, how far the former factory stretched, and it reveals the sculptural nature of the remnants which we have highlighted.
• The site’s geographic scope: The project exposes the relation between the site’s complex topography and the overall topography of the entire valley: docks, balconies over the water, lookouts to take in the whole view.
• The site’s ecological challenges: A listed NATURA 2000 site, it is bolstered and enhanced by the project and its forceful environmental approach:
  • All demolition waste was recycled on site, and machine parts from the former factory are being reused
  • Reclaiming work was performed on the riverbanks, trees were planted, seedbeds from the site were secured, and an experimental garden was created to observe natural fallow cycles
  • A habitat was set up for bats in the factory’s basement
  • The site’s artistic potential: We kept the existing graffiti on certain facades for it fitted well with the site’s features. In addition, the project provides various infrastructures that could host art events (tiered seating, a stage area, pedestals for sculptures) with a view to giving the site a second life.

Feedback (last visit in 2015)

• There were no prior discussions with the contracting authority about the art sculptures involved in the site’s renewal project, and so the artworks are not exactly “on par” with the rest on an aesthetic level. Pity!
• The same goes for the signage, which is really inconsistent and where the worst can be seen side by side with the best. Fortunately, “the worst” is not too visible.
• The site appears to be well managed, showing just the right amount of “slack” to ensure that the venue retains its melancholy charm.
• Every year, the site hosts cultural and art events. Also it is listed in a number of Brittany tourist guides, including Guide du Routard.
• On several occasions, I met former project workers strolling through with their family. This means that the memory of the site is alive and well, and that’s the main thing!

The Parc de La Seille was intended to be a space widely open to the skies, highlighting the topographical features of the banks of the river that runs through it by forming links with the surrounding existing and future urban landscape. Significant levelling has been performed to open up the Seille River which had until then been channelled, as well as shaping the hills that link the park to the future slab-mounted Amphitheatre district. A vast prairie stretches at the foot of the hills, which is used to host various activities.
The park has a number of purposes:

• “Reclaiming” the riverside environment
• Regulating the Seille River’s hydrography
• Collecting water for the future Amphitheatre district
• Forming a key area in the city, suitable for hosting sports and cultural events.

By increasing the areas liable to flooding, and giving the Seille River an extra arm, the park solves all hydrological issues and gains an alluvial setting. The water gardens provide a contrast with the dry hill gardens, encouraging some diversification among the possible biotopes in the area.
As a more urban feature, the esplanade hosts those sports and cultural events that are more spectacular. It starts out inside the Amphitheatre district by the Metz Centre Pompidou, and ends up as a platform overlooking the Seille River, thereby accentuating the bond between the district and the river.

Feedback (last visit in 2014)

• A giant golden sculpture vaguely resembling a toothbrush handle and drawn by Philippe Stark (my research tells me that it was a gift from Japan’s NHK TV) has been installed on top of the big hillock!
• The beautiful tiered flowerbed that used to link the esplanade to the Seille River was destroyed during the creation of the footbridge. That is a pity, for we had planned another location in the initial project.
• Somewhat commonplace children’s games were added at a later stage, for the initial project did not call for any.
• The plane trees on the plateau are beginning to look good, and overall the park vegetation is growing well and it is being looked after in accordance with the initial intent.
• Avenue Louis Le Débonnaire, which was a conditional lot, was not landscaped in the end.