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Balzac high school rewilding
An educational ecology
2024 - ongoing
Issoudun - FR
Natur’O Lycée, Région Centre-Val-de-Loire
Program: School grounds renaturation
Area: 4,6 ha
Team: Étienne Maliet Paysage (lead)
Status: 2024-ongoing
Key figures
- 2,400 m² of asphalt removed
+ 6,000 young trees planted by students
100% local rainwater infiltration
The project works through targeted subtraction and biological succession. The primary move is depaving: removing sealed surface to restore the conditions for soil, water, and plant succession, and to make those processes visible to the students whose daily environment this is.
Subtractive design & material metabolism
The primary design move is depaving. Over 2,400m² of impermeable asphalt is stripped away to liberate the soil below.
In a strict circular economy approach, this extracted material is not treated as waste. Instead, the excavated asphalt slabs are upcycled in-situ, stacked like dry stone walls to construct the new structural furniture of the campus, including benches, retaining walls, and a new outdoor amphitheater.
By turning a climatic liability into convivial social infrastructure, the project physically manifests the concept of productive remediation.
Hydrological resonance
The project reverses the logic of concealed infrastructure. The campus is disconnected from the municipal stormwater network and transitions to a visible, open-air hydrological system.
Rainwater is directed into newly excavated swales, permeable gravel pathways, and rain gardens. Every newly created green space is slightly sunken to act as a natural sponge, making the cycles of water visible and allowing the landscape to naturally cool the adjacent, overheated building facades.
Co-planting
The planting strategy works with time rather than against it. Miyawaki-style micro-forests and dynamic triennial meadows are established through 6,000 indigenous, climate-resilient saplings, mainly planted through participatory workshops with high school students.
This act of co-plantation is a profound exercise in conviviality. It transforms the students from passive consumers of a space into active stewards of their ecosystem, fostering a narrative of interdependency that will grow alongside the forest for decades to come.
Nature inclusive principles, tiles dimensioning and construction details of the furnitures