Our site, common to all students for their Final Year Project, is at the North-East side of Nîmes, in a scrubland area of South of France. This site is an «IN-BETWEEN», a transition space between:


-A suburbian area and a virgin nature. It is an old olive grove, between a virgin garigue (scrubland) and an inhabited one.


-A sport pole & a socio-cultural pole. It is a symbolic place between a mosque and a christian shrine, a public plaza and a library.

 

The main project parti pri is to retain and enhanced the existing orientation of the evergreen nature. Existing huge pine trees spread like fingers of an open green hand. This  hand-shape organization used to be very helpfull to avoid erosion and project fragile olive trees from the wind.

 

Along the green fingers, a grid of pedestrian malls is the skeletton that connect and encourages people to live their car along the main road and walk or bike, to discover the site and it’s wild nature at a slow pace.

 

Typology 1 and 4: the open blocks
Individual staircase blocks are leading to the apartments and liberating the groun, preserved for public usage.

 

Typology 2: Pile houses
Where trees are denser, leave your car along the road before entering the forest. The goal is to live outside at branches height thanks to spacious terraces to the South and West.

 

Typology 3: Villas on true ground
Where the slope get steeper cluster houses are sited on the ground. Their common
terrace is shading a playground.

 

Expériences françaises

2007-2011

 

MELIE VAN REETH *Architecture Eco-conçue // Maîtrise d'Oeuvre // Audit Energétique