Located for fifty years in Marcy-l'Etoile, a municipality near the city of Lyon, BioMérieux, international leader in microbiology and its industrial applications, decided to build their worldwide headquarters in the area. The arrangement and planning of the exterior spaces provided the opportunity to place the future building within a landscape distinguished by a sizable wooded, meandering structure.

The entirety of the site is treated as an elementary landscape, made out of forested areas, meadows, and lawns which serve in unifying the whole, bringing the various settings, buildings, and parking lots into relation with one another.

The arrangement of parallel wooded cordons gives the illusion of a considerable tree mass. The compositional method provides a succession of precisely arranged horizon lines. Modeled after the idea of backstage scenery, these parallel curtains recompose the picturesque landscape by restraining and framing the visual sequences. In this way, the landscape succeeds in concealing the sports field to the west and the sports complex to the north, while nonetheless opening up to the east with views towards the mountains. A central pathway stretches into a spacious clearing. Centerpiece of the overall configuration, this pronounced setting has been distinguished from its completion by the planting of large trees.

Beyond its aesthetic and pedagogical qualities, the landscape also functions as a kind of ecological machine: the ditches for the trees are designed as well to collect the runoff rain water from the parking lots and the roofs of the buildings.