Nighttime life in former garden centers

Development Design-based, restricted contest to manage the realization of an urban park on the former ‘Pichon’ garden centers site in Nîmes, France, with ALEP, Kern and associates, Petroff studios, Egis, Véronique Mure, François Macquart and Michel Forgue Office. Contest won in February 2020.

Jacques Chirac Park: designing nighttime life in former garden centers

The lighting design of the future park plays on two dialectics, born from the specific history of the former garden centers: a balance between vegetal and domestic, as well as between exterior and interior. The project intends indeed to take advantage of the strong vegetal presence, to reveal it and create welcoming nighttime atmospheres for city dwellers – as cool islands become more and more sought after – while respecting the potential biodiversity of the park, vegetation growth, as well as the pool of urban darkness characteristic of the site. Logically, we reflected on the various temporalities of the park, between functional and scenographic lighting, in order to respect this careful balance between natural and urban lives.

Learn more: Article & video Vivre Nîmes