High street and seafront at the Sables-d’Or-les-Pins resort – FRÉHEL AND PLURIEN (Côtes-d’Armor)
RetourCompletion year 2007
Contracting Authority Municipalities of Fréhel and Plurien
Mission Renewing the seafront and the high street
Project Management Team Landscape architects and designers Laure Planchais (mandated agent), Landscape architect/socio-demographer Léna Bouzemberg, Consulting engineers SAFEGE, Town-planners and developers Gilles Rousseau & Martine Gestin, Light designers Coup d’Eclat, Ateliers Nord (graphics/signage), Plastic artist Jean-Luc Brisson
Surface area 9 hectares (1.8 km in a straight line)
Budget €3m exc. VAT
Ratio €33 exc. VAT per m²
The growth of the Sables-d’Or-les-Pins seaside resort was interrupted by the economic crisis in the 1930s, leaving the high street and seafront unfinished. While the area has many assets to offer, they are virtually unnoticeable from the two primary thoroughfares:
- Unusual geological features combining pink granite bedrock, an estuary, a marsh and a range of coastal dunes
- A bold urban masterplan relying on a host of structural planted spaces and quality architectural elements
The project aimed at expressing that diversity along the seafront and the high street by using a vocabulary that reinterprets the existing surrounding landscape and architecture. The entire road network was reduced to make it easier for pedestrians to cross the street, to slow down traffic and to clear vast stretches of grassy roadside verges dotted with pine trees.
The seafront was also restored to pedestrians by redistributing the parking spots within the resort, which consequently encouraged tourists to explore the area’s architectural and landscaped features. A large pedestrian plaza highlights the role of the two primary thoroughfares and puts the focus on the resort’s key attraction: the promenade along the beach, the casino, the green framed by cypresses and the monumental hexagonal arcade building.
In terms of synergy, special efforts in signage and some lighting have boosted the landscaping project, especially when it comes to the entrances to the resort. Similarly, this enhances the shopping aspect of the high street as well as the night time uses specific to seaside resorts.
Feedback (last visit in 2013)
- The planted spaces are not being properly managed, despite a detailed user manual
- Tutors have still not been removed 6 years after planting!
- Leafy plants have been compressed like shrubs.
• Grassy parking spots are not refreshed - The resin used for ground markings has a short lifespan
- The sculpture in the plaza was removed. The plaza is now dotted with giant multi-coloured plastic flowerpots… Unfortunately, they are not artworks by Jean-Pierre Reynaud!