Fourchambault, France

Designed by European 40 under 40 laureate Guillaume Ramillien and his team at Architecture SARL, La Garenne Eco-City transforms this city broken up by rail lines into a new neighborhood as a renewed and rewarding “eco-city.”

Guillaume Ramillien was recently awarded a 2020 European 40 Under 40 Award from The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum.

The project takes into account an easy connection to the downtown district by way of a footbridge, the proximity of the “La Garenne Woods,” with its rich arboreal heritage, an old and deeply-rooted gardening culture in the urban environment and vast open spaces.

Thusly, a strong, visible framework of public spaces that integrate the neighborhood into a fluid continuity between the Loire river and the woods is defined by the project.

The project offers four groups of housing types adapted to their specific location in the neighborhood.

They combine their accommodations while ensuring that everyone’s family privacy is preserved.

The gardens contribute to the domestic image of an individual home.

Garden boundaries draw on the Nivernais hedgerows’ tradition: wooden stake fences, vegetated swales, and country hedges of local and varied plant species, rich in both visual terms and biodiversity.

The architectural expressiveness plays on a simple contrast between the ‘mineral’ quality of white-coated cellular concrete and the shimmering of gold metal.

The “La Garenne Eco-City” is forging a renewed image of the district, based on the themes of solidarity, of a “rurban” (rural/urban) quality of life, and sustainable development.

It promotes “living together” by combining the single-family home’s universe to that of shared public spaces.

Project: La Garenne Eco-City
Architects: Guillaume Ramillien Architecture SARL
Client: Nièvre Habitat
Photographs: Pascal Amoyel