Stephane Malka wins design competition for a multi-level garden in Paris' business district
by Kim Megson | 03 Mar 2016
French studio Stephane Malka Architecture will introduce a flower-filled green space to one of Paris’ most urbanised districts after winning a competition to masterplan a €5m (US$5.4m, £3.8m) landscaped garden.
The 1,500sq m (16,100sq ft) project, called OXyGen, will bring a colourful flower garden, open terraces and a number of new restaurants to Vignes in La Défense; the French capital’s business hub.
“Inspired by the tradition of the romantic gardens of the 19th century, we wish to recreate green areas while remaining contemporary,” said Stephane Malka. “We aim for a kind of vegetal version of Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens, with different varieties of greenery, but also large vegetated cavities of different sizes to invite people to shelter from the sun, rain and wind.”
Spread in a semi-circular shape over two levels, the gardens will act as a bridge covering the city’s highway. Grass rooftops and floors will cover the terraces, restaurants and open kiosks, camouflaging the architecture among the landscape.
The site’s buildings will be entirely prefabricated off-site to avoid noise and disruption to local residents, office workers and hotel guests.
“The masterplan carefully considers the user’s wellbeing and flow management,” said Malka. “The garden will be noticeable from the towers all around, like an invitation for people to visually discover a new sort of place and a landscape which is in constant evolution.
“It will be a new playground for La Défense and for Paris.”
The garden will be delivered in 2017. The client is French firm Avec-Invest.
Malka has worked on several placemaking projects across France. His studio have created prefabricated living spaces which lean on and extend from existing buildings in Paris as an environmentally-friendly and economical ‘parasitic’ solution to creating living space in urban areas short of space.
Paris has a number of major leisure projects in the pipeline, with food markets, hotels, parks, play areas, cinemas, cultural centres and dance halls among the winners of the city’s reinventer.paris competition, which is developing innovative projects to “prefigure the Paris of tomorrow.”
Stephane Malka design competition Paris France landscape architecture garden public space greenery La Defense
Grass rooftops and floors will cover the terraces, restaurants and open kiosks, camouflaging the architecture among the landscape Credit: Stephane Malka Architecture
The park's design is inspired by the romantic gardens of the 19th century Credit: Stephane Malka Architecture
The gardens are due to open in 2017 Credit: Stephane Malka Architecture
17 Feb 2016
Will 'Parasitic Architecture' transform placemaking in cities?
04 Feb 2016
David Chipperfield and Sou Fujimoto among the winners in design competition to 'prefigure the Paris of tomorrow'
French studio Stephane Malka Architecture will introduce a flower-filled green space to one of Paris’ most urbanised districts after winning a competition to masterplan a €5m (US$5.4m, £3.8m) landscaped garden. The 1,500sq m (16,100sq ft) project, called OXyGen, will bring a colourful flower garden, open terraces and a number of new restaurants to Vignes in La Défense; the French capital’s business hub. “Inspired by the tradition of the romantic gardens
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