Reimagining the Garden City model

The new Gally eco-district sits on the site of the former Pion barracks, along the western edge of the Parc du Château de Versailles park. In 2015, MDP conducted an initial study of the site for the city of Versailles. Now tasked with building the public spaces for this 20-hectare site, our team has created a landscape design that reimagines the Garden City model. Four distinct stretches of landscape form spaces that are at once urban, green, and functional, flowing south to north in accordance with land use intensity: a high density, populated area progressively gives way to a more rural setting. At the entrance to this new neighborhood, community facilities (including a school and daycare) and shops are centered around a unifying public space: the wooded square. This landscape flows into the residential groves, where a central promenade runs through private and public housing while smaller pathways branch off to the various buildings. In the third landscape, a manor emerges from four plots of orchards, inspired by the groves of the Bains d’Apollon (the Baths of Apollo) in the nearby Château de Versailles park. This community garden forms a uniting space, seamlessly bridging the preceding landscapes with the more rural setting that follows. At the northern tip of the neighborhood, the floodplain meadow serves a variety of uses. Running crosswise along the eastern side, the large green terrace deftly bridges the neighborhood and adjacent park. Along the western side, the bridle path and wooded band form a screen between the neighborhood and the tram line.