Garden Serge Gainsbourg by Agence Territoires
Landscape Architecture: Agence Territoires
Location: Porte des Lilas, Paris, France
Commissioned by: Semavip (Mixed Investment Company of Paris)
Area: 19th and 20th arrondissement of Paris, France
Design: 2005-2007
Implementation: 2008-2011
Text&photos: Agence Territoires
Acquiring new surfaces by covering the ring-highway is a unique chance to bring Paris back into contact with its suburbs. However, this is not simply a topic of filling up the space, of closing the gap but much more of opening up an old frontier. Previously separated districts need to be connected, a new centre needs to be created.
The history of the deep and large cut of the ancient fortification and today’s ring-highway is translated by an open space: a luxury in on of Europe’s most expensive cities.
Here it becomes a vast meadow which is connected to its history as well as to its geography by visual axis to distant and nearby landscapes.
Along the principal path numerous activities bring people together: playgrounds, a sports field, sun decks, common gardens, …
The project is designed to play a major role in the inner-city ecology with a self-sufficient water management and a choice of plants based on investigations in surrounding fallow spaces which harbor a surprising high abundance of species.
While responding to all of the functional needs, the garden also intends to relate its role in Paris urban ecology to its visitors. The autonomous water management can be experienced on the surface along with the diverse vegetation and the sustainable maintenance.
By This Studio