Despite its exceptional location, the landscape of the Lacanau Océan resort appears undefined. Positioned in the center of a vast coastal area, the seaside resort lies between two estuaries and within a forest, offering an almost insular character of great variety. Nonetheless, the uneven distribution and quality of its public spaces hinders the composition of a legible spatial organization on the scale of this overall geography. The elected officials wished to adopt and implement a new “vision” for the seafront, as well as for a pilot site to the north of the resort.

The renovation and transformation of the seafront is based upon the creation of an urban beach bordered with a generously dimensioned promenade. Transversely, the coastal landscape is highlighted through a broad sequence of successive strata: ocean, beach, planted and protected dunes, a higher up promenade area for pedestrians and bicycles, before finally the roadway. These levels are connected by stairs, long pontoons, and the footboards that line the coast. A number of terraces overlook the sea, allowing for the appreciation of the vast horizon. Groups of plantings incorporating windbreaks and street furniture designed expressly by the architect Inessa Hansch extend from the landscape into the paths that crisscross the resort.

North of the city, we conceived of a pilot neighborhood. The Lacanau territory is covered by forest and punctuated by inhabited clearings which we considered as “little built-up islands”. With this in mind, we conceived of an archipelago made up of eight little villages, bordering the forest, arranged around a vast shared clearing. The public spaces currently lacking are designed in the form of a single park, which gives to the area its proper scale and above all its identity.