JARDIN DU TIERS PAYSAGE - GILLES CLÉMENT

Work from the Estuaire collection

Open to the public since 1998 thanks to a project by urban planner Manuel de Sola Morales, the roof of the submarine base is an open-air terrace between the city and the harbour basin.

Gilles Clément, born in 1943, is a gardener, landscape architect, agricultural engineer, botanist, entomologist, writer and teacher. Recognised as one of the world's leading landscape architects and garden theorists, his work includes the Parc André-Citroën (in collaboration), the Domaine de Rayol, the Abbaye de Valloire, the Château de Blois and the gardens of the Arche. Gilles Clément energetically advocates a way of approaching the garden that favours its dynamic aspect and its natural evolution, with minimal intervention by the gardener, machinery and chemical products. His credo: do as much as possible with and as little as possible against.

In designing his first Jardin du Tiers-Paysage, Gilles Clément saw the Saint-Nazaire base as "a place of resistance" capable of accommodating the ecological diversity of the estuary. The triptych-shaped space takes advantage of the three existing architectural features.

In 2009, the bomb blast chambers became home to Le Bois de Trembles, with 107 aspen trees emerging from the concrete. Gilles Clément's first poetic intention was to make the base sparkle and tremble...

In 2012, the uncovered bays of Le Jardin des Orpins et des Graminées were crossed by a canal planted with horsetails. It can be discovered from a footbridge offering a unique view of the entire base. Orpins and grasses, hardy plants emblematic of the estuary, bring plant life to this mineral environment. In the pit, for Le Jardin des Étiquettes, Gilles Clément installed a thin layer of substrate. It's up to the wind, the birds and our soles to deposit seeds. Twice a year, the new plants will be identified and carefully labelled.

To complete the triptych, a map shows us the estuary's third landscape zones. It bears witness to an ecological richness identified at a given moment, and gives us hope for its future expansion.

Garden designed by Gilles Clément, created by the Coloco collective and students from the Jules Rieffel agricultural college in Saint-Herblain, with technical support from the Saint-Nazaire town green spaces department.

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Maintenance work is currently being carried out on the roof of the Saint-Nazaire submarine base, so the work is now partially visible.
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