Within the context of the overall renovation of the Jussieu campus, the status the central square assumes is of fundamental importance. With the exception of a basin situated at the foot of the campus tower, there was not one construction or object or furnishing element on the vast mineral square. Separated from the street, the square extended in an undefined way until merging with the campus esplanade, where there was a violent contrast between light and shadow. The wind, after being turned back by the tower, accelerated through the raised buildings. If a certain beauty could be attributed to the brutal architectural layout, the sensations of discomfort and inhospitality nonetheless dominated. Changing the use and status of the square became necessary. We proposed transforming it into a garden.

Technical constraints are decisive here. The underground parking lot's paving slab limits the garden's supporting layer of earth to a depth of twenty-five centimeters. The only exception is in the spots, interspersed throughout, above the poles of the structure below, where the equivalent of about a cubic meter of earth can be placed.

The garden is made up of a number of planted green pockets – a sort of enlarged opus incertum – which are carved up by a number of informal pathways. Filled in with blocks of expanded polystyrene, the pockets increase in thickness while conserving enough topsoil in which to plant ivy and grasses. The landscape design that results is a rhythm of successive horizon lines and slight meanders. An unexpected topography that incorporates in addition an irregular planting of trees, which works in concealing the supporting trays. The plant presence is immediate. The project is based on a device of explicit artifice, on a contemporary and sculpted arrangement of natural elements visible from the street.