Remarkable situation and landscape
The Satory plateau, the eighth neighborhood of the city of Versailles, is a large clearing encircled by woods. Bordered to the south by the beginning of the Bièvre valley and its ponds, it overlooks to the north the historical estate of Versailles. Containing a surface area of around three hundred hectares, the area has been marked for a long time by the almost exclusive presence of the military. The planned freeing up in the western section of military terrain by the Ministry of Defense provides an exceptional opportunity of transforming the area, especially within the perspective of creating a  station for the planned Greater Paris metro line 18, which will directly connect Versailles-Chantiers on one side, and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, the campus-city located south of the plateau, Massy, and Orly on the other side. The future Satory Ouest Versailles hub will bring together advanced technology companies interested in themes of transportation and mobility of the future, in connection with the automobile centers and various centers related to the Paris-Saclay cluster.

Historical anchoring: reinterpreting the contours of Versailles
The geographical and historical heritage of the Satory plateau shapes the site. This is why the project proposes to play with the existing components and reinterpret them. It is not a question of restoring, nor of recreating, a historical situation. The objective lies rather in the planning of a neighborhood, and there is a real relevancy in utilizing the landscape elements in responding to and meeting the current challenges. The planning challenge of organizing the landscape exists in anticipating future economic, residential, and service developments. The objective here lies in giving priority to the project's landscape dimension, ensuring that it interacts at three levels: in prefiguring, in structuring, and in ensuring the functioning of the programs.

THE LANDSCAPE PROJECT

North edge
The north edge of the Satory plateau will be treated like a magnified natural geography. The terrace opening towards the château having become a highway, the thickness of the wooded hillside maintains the space necessary to protect the neighborhood from the infrastructure of roads.

Network shaping the north-south axes
The project proposes to reinterpret the wooded axes crossing Satory from north to south, which have both an architectural and spatial function. Large avenues and large walkways of broad size will create public spaces and pathways for pedestrians and cyclists. These north-south connections will be treated in such a way as to form a succession of horizon lines, marking off a series of variously sized “rooms”, within which the neighborhoods will be set up. This physical framework, by incorporating what already exists, ensures a smooth progression of the overall urban development over time.

Principal north-south axis
The principal axis will serve both research and development activities as well as future residential neighborhoods. To the south, the axis will join the edge area, where a large walkway will provide an incredible balcony over the valley. To the north, the axis coincides with the entrance point to the RD 91. It will benefit from a considerable plant presence and the new hub of activity to be built around the line 18 metro station.

Departmental Road 91
Providing the main access point to Satory, departmental road 91 deserves special attention. It makes up the “entrances” to the neighborhood, and functions in incorporating both significant traffic flow and the living spaces associated with urbanization. Within this network of roads bordered by wooded areas, various means of traffic will be established and organized: cars, public transport, bicycles, pedestrians...

Intermediate landscape
The intermediate landscape, crossed by a network of east-west oriented roads, provides landscape continuity between the neighborhoods and a succession of transversal public spaces. It will be made up of meadows dotted with trees, similar to certain areas found in the park of Versailles, near the Trianon. Initially, these public spaces will function in helping prefigure the neighborhoods to come, helping usher along their transformation, before becoming the local green spaces of the different neighborhoods.

South edge
Seen from the plateau, the large south edge provides numerous opportunities. However, despite being oriented towards the south with a view of the Bièvre valley and its ponds, various present constructions turn their back on this edge area, which has been used instead as a place for parking lots and service roads. The south edge needs to be redeveloped through the densification of the woods bordering the plateau. Walkways along the ledge, an east-west path along the ridge, and a network of runoff water retention basins will spread across the plateau here. Later, shedding its status as backyard to the plateau, the south edge, through urban developments, can constitute a facade for the overall site, providing views towards the valley and ponds of Bièvre.

Forest paths
The design and planning of the Satory plateau has its roots in the surrounding valleys. Establishing or reestablishing the numerous paths directly connecting the plateau to the valleys is an essential part of the process of transformation in terms of creating public spaces, facilities, and landscaped promenades.

Water management
Sloping entirely towards the south, the plateau should collect its runoff water, which the basins in the valley are unable to take responsibility for, subject to more in-depth hydrographical studies. The proposal entails the restitution of a canal running alongside the southern border, as well as the setting up of a number of retention basins, modeled after those that exist on the edge. The management of rainwater therefore relies upon the partial establishment and the partial restoration of a basin network bordering the plateau, which will be designed in the image of the Mail lake in Orsay, a simple square of water bordered by plane trees.