BDP - Les Gargues Eco-District

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Building Design Partnership (BDP) is a huge, global multidisciplinary company with specialists in all areas of design, engineering and planning, working together to make places for people.

Their portfolio features huge masterplans and restoration projects such as the New Pujiang Centre in Shanghai and the Jakarta River Development in Indonesia, recovering these cities from the damaging effects of rapid urbanization. The Jakarta project was supposedly completed in 2019 but there aren’t finished photos available, a running theme throughout their online portfolio, it seems. However, I have selected an image from the proposed eco-district development in Les Gargues, Aubagne, France.

Chosen for the ‘natural landscape’ and wonderful variety of trees. The plan for this landscape reveals what looks to be a successful integration of the natural and built environment. We can see a variety of habitats within the image along with sustainable measures to manage water, including vegetated swales, filter strips and a wildlife pond, all amid the compact network of housing units and public facilities. It is this network of green spaces and habitat corridors that I find particularly gratifying. 

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