Client: The town of Clermont-Ferrand
Design team: D PAYSAGE (lead landscape architects), Infra Services (infrastructure engineers) and Aartill (lighting)
My role: Design of the competition entry
Location: Clermont-Ferrand, France
Date: 2010
Surface area: 14 000m²
Budget: 3.7M € excl. VAT
The human rights plaza is a key space for the Vergnes area renovation project. The new plaza enhances the neighbourhood’s public spaces whilst incorporating Line1 of the tramway with a station on the plaza, the creation of an East-West route linking the neighbouring areas, a new shopping centre and connections with an existing park and promenade. The plaza is composed of two complementary spaces: one dominated by hardscape and the other by planting. The hardscape area, is a space for those connecting between different methods of transport, market square, esplanade and shopping centre. The planted space creates a new link between the existing Park and Promenade providing children’s play areas and open lawns for leisure/picnics whilst being a collecting point for the rainwater run-off and. These two sides interact along an historical axis. The design of this project is also heavily based on the ecologically responsible management of rainwater run off with a harvesting system and the use of materials and layouts that favour infiltration.