The structure of the Toulouse landscape is strongly determined by the superimposition of geographical and historical entities. The river, the canal, the ancient city ramparts have formed together a landscape where water, infrastructure, and trees combine, to the point where today an exceptional amount of complicity exists between the vegetal system present and urban forms. The focus of the project lies not in simply replacing urban mistakes with a landscape in exchange, but in strengthening and respecting the presence, quality, and beauty of the already existing plant structure, working to ensure its legibility. Reintroducing a coherence and logic to the organization of the city center and its public spaces is therefore carried out through the singling out of strategic and specific intervention sites.

Nine landscape entities are thus chosen. Together they form the backbone of the center of Toulouse: the Garonne river, the canal, the octagon, the parkways, the transversal roads, the radials, the archipelagos, the gardens in squares, and the gardens in courtyards. Once these public spaces are either planted or their existing plant structure enhanced, a hierarchical network is created linking together the remarkable already planted sites. Three very specific and distinct vegetal environments bring an overall coherence to the city center's configuration, asserting a naturalistic rather than ornamental character.