The Arboreal Soul
Celebrating South-Korean’s silent companion
Seoul - KR
Competition
Seoul International Garden Show 2026
Area
200m2
This garden creates a sacred grove magnifying the existing pine trees and celebrating its rich heritage to South Korean culture. It bridges nature and culture aesthetics with a strong naturist design setting the atmosphere of the place and a more cultural, man-made edge.
The grove scenarises the current rocky natural habitat of the pine with stone blocks while the ‘sacredness’ of the place is created by a discontinuous square in the periphery made of dressed stone walls and 4 pillars at every corner. This place is also inclusive and interactive, visitors of all age are invited to walk in under the pines, sit and contemplate, jump from stones to stones, get amazed by the plants, touch foliages, eat the Korean blueberries growing around, search for the insects and animals hidden in between the stones, grasses, shrubs...
De Borght park
Where heritage and nature meet
Mechelen - BE
Client
City of Mechelen
Team
Area
4 ha
The Parc de Borght is a cornerstone of our local identity, and preserving its historical soul is the primary driver of this project. We are dedicated to carefully restoring the site's landmarks, including the old walls and architectural features, to prevent degradation while ensuring they remain safe for visitors.
By integrating educational elements and heritage trails, we hope to create a living history experience where the stories of the past are woven into the landscape. Every new amenity introduced will be chosen to blend seamlessly with the park’s original aesthetic, ensuring a respectful harmony between the new infrastructure and the historic grounds.
While we cherish the past, this project is equally committed to the future of our local environment. The park is being reimagined as a vital ecological lung for the area. We are prioritizing the reintroduction of native tree and plant species that are resilient to climate variations, creating a robust and natural ecosystem.
This approach includes establishing protected wildlife refuges and ecological corridors to support birds, pollinators, and small fauna. Through sustainable "differentiated management," we will allow specific zones to remain wild to boost biodiversity, while carefully maintaining other areas for public enjoyment.
Ultimately, a park is defined by the people who bring it to life. Our goal is to redesign the parc de Borght into a welcoming place for families, seniors, and nature lovers alike. We are upgrading the network of paths and trails to ensure they are fully accessible to everyone, including individuals with reduced mobility and parents with strollers.
To encourage social interaction, high-quality, durable furniture will be installed throughout the grounds, creating inviting spots for relaxation and community gatherings. These improvements are paired with enhanced lighting and visibility measures to ensure the park remains a safe, peaceful, and comfortable environment for all.
Schifting blueprint
The Productive Remediation of the Dunlopillo Site
Mantes la jolie - FR
Context
Europan 18
competition proposal
Team
Despo Panayidou
Area
11 ha
Schifting blueprint envisions not an erasure of this past, but a «productive remediation»—a sober, responsible, and local revitalization that builds upon this unique legacy. The goal is to transform this site into a new destination founded on its identity, heritage, and existing resources; a place where productive development and quality of life merge to form a creative, accessible, active, and landscaped neighbourhood for all residents of Mantes-la-Jolie.
The architectural expression will celebrate the industrial character of the site. Reuse is our guiding principle. Steel structures from demolished halls will form the skeletons of new buildings. The facades will feature a mix of salvaged and new bricks, while recovered wood and stone will also find new life. New roof designs will pay homage to the iconic industrial sheds, bathing interiors in natural light and preserving the site’s unique atmosphere.
Ultimately, this project offers a rational, contextual, and responsible urban strategy. It is a remediation that reactivates the essential spirit of the site, transforming a polluted brownfield into a symbol of renewal; a vibrant, integrated and productive district that benefits the city of Mantes-la-Jolie and its inhabitants.
Recompose: We will preserve and magnify the site’s powerful industrial identity, weaving it into a new urban fabric that hybridises productive and residential functions to create a living, autonomous neighbourhood. The project will foster a vibrant economic ecosystem by offering a diverse range of spaces, from 50m² for artisans to 1500m² for established mid-size companies and by encouraging collaboration between the private sector, educational institutions like UVSQ, and local associations. The industrial heritage will be honored by conserving symbolic elements like tanks and overhead networks and tracing the outlines of former buildings in the new public spaces.
Reconnect: A key objective is to break the site’s isolation. We will integrate new connections, carefully managing logistical flows while prioritising soft mobility for residents and visitors. Logistics will be concentrated on the northern half of the site, while general traffic will be excluded from it and a 200-space underground car park will serve inhabitants, workers, and visitors. To ensure seamless integration with the city, bus lines D and G will be extended to the site, and the active mobility network will be connected to existing routes, promoting pathways along the Gassicourt lake. Critically, we will reconnect the site to its natural surroundings by creating two landscaped, ecological corridors that link the adjacent lakes.
Remediate: Our approach is rooted in a circular and integrated process of transformation. This begins with a deep commitment to the environment by managing polluted soils on-site through bioremediation techniques. Excavated earth will be sorted, clean soil revitalised for new landscaping and contaminated soil treated and reused. This principle of reuse extends to the buildings themselves; materials from deconstructed structures will be salvaged and incorporated into new constructions, managed from a central workshop in the renovated «Usine des Communs.»
Balzac d’Alembert
high school rewilding
Issoudun - FR
Client
Team
Area
4,6 ha
We based our approach on the rewilding of the outdoor spaces, where the introduction of natural habitats is the main project driver - creating transitions with the surrounding areas, enhancing ecological habitats, maximasing the reuse of paving materials to build structures and furnitures (for both humans and non-humans), and designing a variety of outdoor spaces that accommodate students’ activities and allow for meeting, resting, playing, and teaching.
The Sacred Grove
International Garden Festival
Chaumont-sur-Loire - FR
Client
Domaine régional de Chaumont-sur-Loire
Sponsors
Building team
Emma Morillon, Chloé Savalle, Étienne Maliet,
Louise Bégou, Christophe Allignet, Sylvie Very
AJ Rénovation
Lycée Agricole Le Fresne
Axel Guillou, Enzo Touyou, Gabriel Piotrowski, Louison Paillard, Nathan Dubois, Noah Fleury, Owen Coquemont
Budget
12.000€
Links
Sacred groves are recurring elements through history, amongst westerns and non-western cultures. They are protected spaces where mankind converses with deities, primordial and elemental places where nature and humans connect.
This garden is an interpretation of this concept. It stages a fallen tree in the middle of a meadow, surrounded by a dense forest edge. It is a space of intense life where bacteria, insects and fungi are busy decomposing the wood, feeding ground and birds, where perennials, shrubs and saplings are stretching for the light, a space where the death of a tree starts the rebirth of many others. Cloistered by wooden poles, the central meadow become a sanctuary, a place where visitors are guests, invited to have a seat under the trees, contemplate and reconnect with nature.