Ecole Nationale Superieure du Paysage

I was lucky to be able to attend a weeks Landscape Architecture workshop at the French Ecole Nationale Superieure du Paysage (school of Landscape), based in the former kitchen gardens at the Palace of Versailles during September. The subject of the workshop was based around the publication of the greater Paris plan, which included proposals for urbanising additional land surrounding the city of Paris. Our task was to look at a site at Rungis, close to Orly Airport to the south of the city. Currently this land is put to agricultural use, but it is clear that the city's relentless growth will make this unsustainable.

Working in groups amongst students from many parts of the world with different skill bases a number of schemes were developed to incorporate this agricultural land into the urban plan for Paris. The group which which I was involved would aim to preserve the current landscape of agricultural fields by lifting the land and placing housing units beneath it, thus preserving the use of the land above and the view down the fields. The proposal not only created an interesting space but also instigated a new idealistic image of life in the fields without cars and with outstanding sustainable credentials- precedents for the project included the BedZed development near Wimbledon, London.