Place Terreaux is a soilless square. Open ground is absent, kept at bay by underground installations. The loss of connection seems irrevocable.
Providing a garden here is providing a fiction, i.e. the fiction of the irruption of nature in the city: islands of greenery emerging at the surface, seeping through the sterile paving stone. Their round profile, mossy and grassy surface, and tree-filled emergence contrast with the metallic and mineral elements that make up the square.
Freshly arrived from the edge of a forest or a prairie, they strike us with the incongruity of their presence. Cut away from their original home, standing there like emissaries, these pieces of terra incognita call us out as to the city’s ability to become a garden. They partly bury the urban furniture, soften its sharp-edged geometry, and bring back a little informality in this stone labyrinth while giving it new readability.
Authors
Fanny Vesco, architecte paysagiste (FR)
Gaëlle Pranal, architecte paysagiste (FR)
Antoine Magnon, architecte paysagiste (FR)
Adèle Hopquin, architecte paysagiste (FR)
Lélia Demoisy, scénographe (FR)
Partners & Implementation
Koller Paysage
Pépinière Jardin des Alpes
List of Plants and Materials
Hêtre commun, Fagus sylvatica
Noisetier, Corylus sp.
Sorbier, Sorbus sp.
Bouleau, Betula sp.
Pied de chat dioïque, Antennaria dioica
Barbe-de-bouc, Aruncus dioicus
Capillaire des murailles, Asplenium trichomanes
Grande astrance, Astrantia major ‘Alba’
Cymbalaire des murs, Cymbalaria muralis
Œillet superbe, Dianthus superbus
Panicaut à feuilles de yucca, Eryngium yuccifolium
Fraisier des bois, Fragaria vesca
Aspérule odorante, Galium odoratum
Spirée à 3 feuilles blanc, Gillenia trifoliata
Globulaire à feuilles en cœur, Globularia cordifolia ‘Nana’
Lin des Alpes, Linum alpinum
Mélique ciliée, Melica ciliata
Galane, Penstemon mensarum
Rodgersia à feuilles de marronnier, Rodgersia aesculifolia
Pimprenelle à fines feuilles blanches, Sanguisorba tenuifolia ‘Alba’
Orpin blanc, Sedum spurium album
Joubarbe, Sempervivum
Silène du Caucase, Silene schafta
Valériane officinale, Valeriana officinalis
Petite pervenche, Vinca minor bleu
Amarante couchée, Amaranthus deflexus
Vipérine commune, Echium vulgare
Fumeterre officinale, Fumaria officinale
Miroir de Vénus, Legousia speculum-veneris
Mélilot officinal, Melilotus officinalis
Myosotis des bois, Myosotis sylvatica
Nigelle de Damas, Nigella damascena
Onagre bisannuelle ou « Belle de nuit », Oenothera biennis