The implementation of the first public spaces of the Ecole Polytechnique neighborhood has begun. In particular, the main boulevards and points of access that will shape the central strip of the neighborhood are being constructed.

Prototypes are necessary for the selection and validation of materials and of the different elements that make up the roads: edges, road crossings, diverse forms of protection, rainwater collection methods, planting alignments, street furniture, signage, lighting. To be significant, these prototypes should be of considerable size. They provide the opportunity of experimenting with other components of the project, including the vegetal structures, components yet to be determined that could relate to the entirety of the plateau's public spaces, such as the system of parks. The idea is to take advantage of this opportunity, assembling these experiments into a kind of place. A place where all project components can be demonstrated, and where all the deciders and actors involved in these neighborhoods are given access. From this idea, the concept of a test garden quickly appeared. This place can very well host events concerning the public relations of the project. We envision the construction of a small hall capable of hosting such events and exhibitions.

One of the constraints lay in finding a terrain that hadn't been divided up in mortgage by future constructions, and whose ground area thus wasn't already managed by the public authorities. Naturally enough, the future metro station square appeared as the appropriate site. Its location near the main traffic route of the ecole polytechnique neighborhood is particularly visible and accessible. We wished to make this site a strong indication of what is to come, prefiguring the landscape elements of the future campus.

It became necessary to design a place of simple and readable architecture, precisely because its placement is conceived both within a large territory undergoing construction as well as within a large agricultural territory. The site evolves and transforms itself at a regular rhythm. This transformation takes place first of all by necessity, as the site is a plant nursery containing trees that frequently need to be transplanted, and whose plants will be gradually utilized in the construction of public spaces. But the transformation also takes place due to the gradual investments in terms of construction.

Through its evolution, the space will gradually take on new shape with the construction of the surrounding buildings. Added to the changes of crop rotation, this continual recomposition will take place as the surrounding buildings are completed. Ultimately, the garden will make way for the metro station square, with its collection of various elements having been transplanted elsewhere, except perhaps for a certain number of plants having become permanent to the space.