“After completing our studies, when we, as young (landscape) architects, wanted to focus more on the design of public spaces and the landscape, we realised that most landscape architects at the time were still very much focused on geometry and composition. When we discovered Gilles Clément’s project, it proved to be an eye-opener. In the heart of Lille, close to the old town and what was then the Euralille construction site, Gilles Clément built a seven-metre-high concrete wall around a piece of wasteland in 1996. The ground was raised and planted. Around it, he created a public park. This project, in which a patch of wild nature is allowed to grow freely, cut off from any human intervention, had a profound influence on us. The idea of building a sort of citadel to protect all living things from the outside world is not only very poetic; it also gave us a new aesthetic framework.

This way of seeing and working is also reflected in a number of our projects, such as the Sart Tilman car park in Liège, which we constructed in 2019. In this project, the omnipresence of the car makes us reflect on how we can provide a functional solution whilst simultaneously ‘maintaining control’. We are reactivating the ecosystem and focusing on nature. We ‘reweave’ the green and blue networks, so that the fauna and flora can once again flourish and develop further. We are renovating the footpaths and cycle paths, even though these represent only a small part of the site in terms of surface area. However, by showcasing them and making them attractive, we are also encouraging a change in mindset and new habits. It is a car park in the woods where nature is gradually reclaiming its rights and where walking becomes a pleasure. The comb-shaped design facilitates transitions between a natural and an artificial environment, whilst keeping our role as designers rather discreet.”