Place de la Concorde

THE GREAT URBAN FIGURES

The urban and geographical situation of the Place de la Concorde positions it in the historical narrative of the major spaces that are organized from east to west along the river. By rediscovering the lost link between the Tuileries Gardens and those of the Champs Elysées, the project affirms its quality as a 'garden square' as it was in the 19th century. The rediscovered limits of the ditches allow for the creation of its framework, written by the structures and the vegetation, without dissociating it from its 'extra-muros' context. The stitching is all the easier with the river and particularly its high quays in a figure that connects it to the Cours de la Reine and the Quai des Tuileries.

PLANT DITCHES - ECOLOGY & COOLING

The project aims to rediscover a plant design in relation to soil conditions, drainage choices, and cooling through evapotranspiration, and to propose autonomous vegetation that draws its resources from the environmental conditions. Between the original deep ditches, their subsequent planting in the form of orchards or flowerbeds, and the conditions under which they are evoked, the cool ditches supporting hygrophilous vegetation allow us to speak of this history and accompany the restored boundaries of the central figure.

We are thus creating 1,000 linear meters of ecological corridor, representing 15,600 m² of biodiversity, combining perennial plants from cool and humid environments, low shrubs, and large, tall trees, allowing for the main views and providing shade.

A GARDEN SQUARE

The longitudinal promenade between the Tuileries Gardens and the Champs-Élysées Gardens is part of a journey that should accompany the walker as they cross the square. It should encourage them to stay there, to enjoy a major historical space that, in the extension of Hittorff's interventions, becomes a 'garden square'. This notion of garden requires uses that are possible thanks to green spaces and in particular lawns. We note that 'bowling greens' are represented on the plans and engravings of the Place Louis XV. The return to a more green square, taking into account current uses, constraints but also climate change, is part of a form of continuity and reinterpretation of this space in its multifaceted history.