The Buffon Poliveau urban cluster is made up of a number of disused annexes of the Natural History Museum and the Jardin des Plantes. Located near the large universities of Censier, Paris-Diderot, and Jussieu, and in the heart of a historical botanical garden, the Buffon Poliveau restoration project retains a genuine scientific focus. The objective being to create a setting in which the grounds are used in a way consistent with the needs of the museum, needs today primarily linked with the maintenance of its collections and with improving the conditions in which its research activities take place.

Aiming to fit into the existing sequence of the site's organization with tact and discretion, our intervention does not attempt to redraw the lines of the garden. It is already a much cherished setting made up of small courtyards, open or facade-lined gardens, ponds, and groves... The qualities and broad dimensions of the site are the result of successive appropriations, the accumulation over time of many landscape gardening practices, and the introduction of various plants and varied materials. The many tiny gardens are connected, while preserving their individual features, through the construction of singular pathways. A new plant continuity was introduced to the site, allowing for its opening onto the prestigious neighboring gardens.