• Creating a vast esplanade linking the university buildings on both sides of Rue Henri Wallon
• Aligning the built facades, to be constructed upon the gymnasium and at a diagonal to the existing buildings
• Enhancing the wooded strip along national highway RN12 and creating a link between the future car park to the south of the UIT and the esplanade
• Distancing and protecting the low-rise housing to the north using a planted strip
• Creating a parking space included within the Nursing School’s future building (either half-buried or on ground level)
• Connecting the esplanade with existing buildings and with the main pedestrian thoroughfares on the campus
• Taking into account the planned long-term extension to the local town-planning scheme (PLU) for the low-rise housing adjacent to the IUT

Based on the master plan established during the preparatory phase, the first lot includes the creation of a vast, triangular public esplanade in the centre of the site, intended to unify existing and future buildings (a project is planned for the Nursing School). The space is designed in such a way as to maintain a smooth flow of people and to host open-air events, as well as providing micro-gardens dotted here and there to foster peace and quiet and conviviality. Those gardens will feature striking artificial topographies and miniature tree plantations complete with their undergrowth. The esplanade stretches to the foot of the facades across the street, forming a semi-pedestrian platform. A plant-lined ditch will buffer all of the new landscaping’s rainwater.

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 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.