Urban edges at La Réunion (Saint-Paul, West coast), French overseas Department

Urban edges at La Réunion (Saint-Paul, West coast), French overseas Department Grand French National Award of Landscape Architecture 2016) Reunion, a small volcanic island, lies 800 km east of Madagascar (Indian Ocean). The population can only live in coastal areas where the demographic pressure is very strong, speciallly in the West.

The Route des Tamarins was created over 35 km to open up the coastline. Between a town, a nature reserve and a listed site, there is a confined space where the landscape architects had to create a three-land dual carriageway nearly 30m wide. Instead of just building a road, the idea was to construct a real landscaping project building relationship between the town and its natural, cultural and agricultural spaces and creating a relationship between the populations and the spaces. With the regional council, the landscape architects have successfully set ambitious landscape orientations for the west coast of the island. The project continued over time at the scale of the large territory covers the design of an urban edge at St. Paul.

The four fold project around the highway allows the inhabitants to reclaim their living spaces : re-creating a wetland area which constitutes the identity of the town, 2 promenades, a new road junction downsized and re-positioned.

Authors: Bertrand Folléa - Claire Gautier, Agence Folléa-Gautier paysagistes urbanistes
Photo Credit: ©agence Follea-Gautier
Country: France