Aerial view of a modern urban park with green spaces, pathways, and black building structures, featuring architecture by MOXON Architects.
Clermont Ferrand

Clermont Ferrand

Saint-Jean, France

2011

Client   EcoCité Clermont Métropole
Centred on a large landscaped meadow, this masterplan aims to create space for the cultural industries through reconfiguring and expanding upon several existing buildings in the university city of Clermont-Ferrand. This new plan also offers the chance to open up this area to neighbouring amenities.
A sketch of an architectural design showing a side view and top view of a building with indoor and outdoor spaces, featuring trees and pathways. Architecture by MOXON Architects.
Minimalist sketch of a landscape with a building and trees, featuring simple line work, architecture by MOXON Architects.

Two bands of buildings along the southern and eastern edges of the site house a new school, new small-scale shops and new housing. At ground level, service yards, storage and car parks are concealed beneath a raised landscape bank. Above those are residential blocks, with views across the central meadow to the dramatic vista beyond.

The proposed housing is a combination of affordable housing and larger apartments, in a series of scattered towers overlooking the central meadow.  Schools, shops and small scale business and creative industry units face the perimeter of the site, with pathways and vehicle access at times breaking through into the central landscaped area.

A digital 3D model of an urban landscape with modern high-rise buildings and surrounding infrastructure. The scene features geometric shapes and road layouts, viewed from an elevated angle, with a muted color palette of grays and whites.
Aerial view of a campus featuring modern buildings surrounded by trees and lawns. Pathways connect the structures, and people can be seen walking around the area. The scene is bathed in daylight, highlighting the natural and built environment.

The central section of the site is landscaped, tilting the public space towards the West, and raising the residential accommodation to ensure the maximum visual connection towards the Chaine des Puys ; a ’nod’ to the vista within a predominantly low-rise, level urban industrial area.  The crater-like landscaping creates a gently sloping amphitheatre setting for family activities and relaxation, with reference to the surrounding volcanic landscape of craters, cones and land forms created from lava-flow.

The large region of open space, planned as a mixture of meadow, forest garden and formal landscaping, supports biodiversity and creates attractive spaces for rest and gathering.

Aerial view of a landscape with a modern residential area bordered by a dense forest. There are several paths winding through the trees and connecting the buildings, with clear skies above.
Aerial view of a modern urban park with green trees, pathways, and black buildings, architecture by MOXON Architects.
Aerial view of a park with clusters of green trees and winding pathways. Modern buildings with dark rooftops cast shadows on the grass. The landscape features open grassy areas interspersed with tree groups and walkways.
A black-and-white architectural section drawing of a multi-level building and surrounding landscape, with trees and parking, architecture by MOXON Architects.
A sketch of modern buildings and trees in an outdoor setting, with people and bikes in the foreground, architecture by MOXON Architects.

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