Landscaping the Kervidanou business estate – QUIMPERLÉ (Finistère)

Retour

Completion year 2015
Contracting Authority Quimperlé Federation of Municipalities (COCOPAQ)
Mission Renewing and extending the Kervidanou business estate
Project Management Team Landscape architects and designers Laure Planchais (mandated agent) with Environmental consultants ECR, Architectural consultant Catherine Le Perron
Surface area 50 hectares (including 7 for the extension)
Budget €3m exc. VAT
Ratio €6 exc. VAT per m²

The Kervidanou business estate was established alongside the RN165 expressway, a border between rural farmland and the entrance to the town of Quimperlé. It is broken down into four geographic sectors, one of which is devoted to retail. The spaces are shabby and unsuitable for mixed uses or purposes on account of their confined size. The landscaping project consisted in unifying the four sectors as well as the planned extension (about ten hectares) through a consistent and homogenous approach to signage, plantation schemes and continuous footpaths and bike lanes.
The landscaping has imposed a 50km/h speed limit, encouraging walking and cycling, which are the most likely means of fostering soft mobility.
The plantations separating the private plots help to homogenise a great variety of fences. Agreements were signed with the owners to grow climbing plants to adorn their wire fences.

Feedback (last visit in 2016)

  • The project has experienced a number of trials and tribulations while being implemented, and municipalities changing their minds, all of which has led to substantial losses in consistency and in landscaping quality.
  • There has been a lot of vandalism, even though nothing in the background situation could have caused us to expect it: broken trees, stolen plants, the “anonymous” spraying of chemical weed killer on certain plants, people failing to obey speed limits or one-way traffic and causing accidents, etc.
  • Significant damage was caused to perennial plants by rabbits who eat the sprouts and by seagulls who use clumps of roots to build their nests.
  • Coloured asphalt is too delicate to lay down and cannot be duplicated during repairs.
  • There is a major problem with the regeneration of shrub plantations, and we are unable to determine the cause despite the investigations that were performed.
  • Here’s hoping that despite this detrimental climate, an optimistic future will take over once again!