A large landscaped shape, legible and consistent

Plaine Commune's landscape project aims to create a landscaped living environment in keeping with the ambitions of a territory made up of a highly dynamic community of four hundred thousand inhabitants, as well as to help better usher in future transformations of the area. The project takes the form of a large landscaped shape,  ambitious in its size yet modest in the mechanisms it employs.

The creation of this landscaped shape functions in remedying in particular the secluded or enclosed character of the area's existing large spaces (for example the Georges Valbon regional park, the Seine, the Canal Saint Denis), the lack of intermediately-sized green spaces (those between five and ten hectares), as well as the lack of an overall consistency between the multitude of existing small green spaces.

The Plaine Commune large landscaped shape is formed out of the combination of four components, each of which addresses specific issues and contains its own functions:

-The Seine and its landscapes, an ensemble constituting a genuine landscaped monument of the territory, and for which the concepts of landscape amplification and the large Park de Briche/Confluence idea play a primary role.

-The urban framework of the river, a crucial landscape interface linking the urban territory with its geography, supported by the large continuum of existing streets, made up of major boulevards, running parallel to the Seine along the full length of the river's urban loop.

-The connection to large natural spaces, a network of advantageous links set up between the city and the large nearby empty spaces (the Canal de l'Ourcq, the Georges Valbon regional park, the Butte Pinson regional park, the Enghien lake) along the routes of the current or previous water system (the Canal Saint Denis, the tiny Vieille Mer river, the Enghien and Arras streams).

-The additional landscaped outlines, a dense network of paths, plantings, and green spaces of more modest dimension spread out throughout the constituted urban fabric.

Opening onto the wide horizons of the surrounding region

One of the principal tasks of the Plaine Commune landscape is the creation of a strong connection between the territory and the wide landscaped horizons surrounding. The Plaine Commune landscape project meets this fundamental requirement through the creation of a dense network of paths and plantings that link together the area's large natural spaces (the Seine, the Canal Saint Denis, the Georges Valbon regional park, the Butte Pinson regional park, the future Park de Briche/Confluence) as well as successfully linking these spaces to the outlines of the logical sequences of the wider regional green spaces (the networks of parks, forests, hiking trails, bicycle paths, ecological corridors, etc.). In incorporating and treating the entirety of the Island of Saint Denis in a logically consistent manner, , which includes twenty-five kilometers of riverbank punctuated by three large parks, the project also allows Plaine Commune to position itself within the dynamic redevelopment of the bends in the Seine.

The large Park de Briche/Confluence

The Briche fort, its surroundings, and the site where the Seine and the Canal converge, c the heart of the landscape project due to its extraordinary positioning and its large potential of spreading outwards throughout the surrounding urban fabric. Principles of “prefiguration” are particularly suitable here, namely the gradual development of a large park over lands of various kinds.

The gradual formation of Plaine Commune's large landscaped shape

The scale of the dynamics of urban transformation at work and their sustained pace led us to take into consideration with special attention the question of time. The entirety of the projected landscaped shape being deemed indispensable in the masterplan over the long term, reflections focused principally on mechanisms of protection (conservation) and of gradual formation (prefiguration).

On the lands surrounding the Briche and the Confluence, along the embankments of the Seine and the Canal, as well as upon those large empty spaces still remaining within the territory, a kind of watchfulness should allow the landscape potential highlighted by the landscape masterplan not to be overburdened in the short term.

Once the protective measures for these spaces are put in place, as well for the broader outlines of the large landscaped shape, the following principles of prefiguration should be applied:
-the creation of the first paths, initiating the public's appropriation of the space and setting into motion new usages of the area,
-the creation of the first plantings, transforming in the very short term the perception and status of the spaces,
-the creation of small prototypes of future parks and green spaces, testing the relevance of imagined methods of development.