At present, the existing plant structure in the area around the expansive esplanade base of the business district La Defense in Western Paris is made up of just a couple fragmented shapes: André Malraux Park, Puteaux Island. We imagined the emergence of a much vaster plant structure, stretching from the Seine to the Seine here within one of the river's bends, to accompany and balance the powerful mineral character of the esplanade and its constructions.

The forests of the Ile de France region surrounding Paris are viewed by us as model landscapes, with their dimensions in harmony with the geographical scale, and their statuses in correspondence with the territorial scale. Current environmental concerns lead us to consider these landscape entities in their ecological functions as well, in their regulatory role of bringing equilibrium back to urban environments, introducing life into the heart of the City. We believe the superimposition of materials, of architectural and living textures, helps better form and express urban scales and volumes. In addition, we envisage a sort of forest colonization.

The interstitial spaces that border the circular boulevard represent ten percent of the total surface area of the esplanade base. It is on this significant area of around seven hectares that we propose a systematic and pragmatic planting. Composed as it is of a multitude of fragments, the process of planting the territory proceeds through the principle of accumulation. A forest of forty thousand trees (thirty thousand oak and hornbeam trees for the middle cluster and ten thousand birch trees for the edge), through its physical presence, gives back a logical scale to a landscape existing within a uniquely powerful architectural environment.