The mixed tower (town hall + shops + housing) is planted with hanging gardens adapted to the coastal microclimate characterized by a strong sea wind in the upper floors (max. 300km/h at 50 meters). The trees in the tower are anemomorphic sculptures whose species are chosen to have a flexible branching that bends but does not break during storms: Hippophae rhamnoides, Cratægus monogyna, Cupressus marcrocarpa, Tamarix gallica, Quercus ilex, Olea europaea… Participatory greenhouses allow self-consumption. On the ground, a public square on a slab hosts a weekly market, shops, an active public garden and an inaccessible dune climax garden.

Text by journalist Laurent Miguet from the editorial staff of Le Moniteur:

"Knokke-Le-Zoute. The wind sculpts a green tower

Jakob+Macfarlane architects are working with landscapers from Sempervirens (created in 2006 under the leadership of Frédéric-Charles Aillet) to plant the iconic tower in Belgian Biarritz.

With a claimed neo-romanticism, the French Touch channels the wind to soften the forms and reinforce the expression of an urban signal.

In front of the tower, the stimulation of the diversity of uses characterizes the development of the 17,000 m2 esplanade.

To plant a tower that will serve as a contemporary emblem of the Belgian seaside resort of Knokke-Le-Zoute, the landscape design agency Sempervirens applies Bob Dylan's refrain to the letter: "The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind." The rippling mantle of the building's 14 floors will give landscape designer Frédéric-Charles Aillet the opportunity to express his neo-romantic profession of faith: "Man must serve the strength, beauty, and grandeur of nature." While distorting the angles, this channeled force will be put at the service of an architecture that, with the dominant orange of its 14-story facades, aims to function as an urban signal.

Dune ecosystem

Before sitting down at the drawing board, Frédéric-Charles Aillet immersed himself in the dune ecosystem during two days of solitary walks. In the local nature reserve, he measured the impact of winds, which reach up to 275 km/h, on the shapes of local vegetation, three of which will structure his project: the carnations Ammophila arenaria with their shaggy balls; the wild rose Armeria maritima, which also grows in balls, with flowers that span the spectrum from white to red; and the sea buckthorn Hippophae rhamnoides, one of the most well-rooted shrubs in the dunes, and whose orange berries will nod to the dominant color of the tower. These natural sources will help bring the project into line with the agency's statutes, which sets a minimum threshold of 80% local species in the plant dimension of its projects. The remaining 20% will contribute to the signature of a work dedicated to commerce, administrative activities, leisure and housing, in other words a manifesto of vertical functional diversity in a seaside town: in addition to the inevitable umbrella pines that identify the latter, a cultivar of holly with orange berries will reinforce the weight of this color, also taken up in the passageways by nasturtiums, and by crocuses in the central patio. The landscaper will balance this shade with its complementary one: the signature of Sempervirens, a blue S of morning glories, accompanied by descending rosemary, will run through the 14 floors.

Self-grafted igloos

While he vibrates with nature when choosing his plants, the designer does not hesitate to take a stand against the local pruning culture, whose urban impact his solitary walks have revealed to him. To the brutality of this practice, he contrasts the softness of self-grafted igloo shapes made possible by willows and hornbeams, used on the esplanade as windbreaks and sunshades.

Dedicated to exterior landscaping, this latest source of plant inspiration reveals the scale of the mission entrusted by the architect in charge to the landscaper, around three pillars: the greening of the tower, including three participatory greenhouses lit in the evening, on the 6th and 14th floors; the roof of the large commercial area, planted on a substrate 40 to 60 cm thick; and finally the public esplanade, including its function as a heavy roadway for hosting the market.

Among the technical innovations that accompany the architectural project, the root anchoring of trees and shrubs is achieved through a double stainless steel structure: a grid contains the root ball and serves as a hook for a net. In the greenhouses, the pots arranged on shelves benefit from a connection to the rainwater tank. The landscaper's inventiveness was also deployed in the choice of prefabricated coverings for the 17,000 m2 esplanade, in addition to prefabricated concrete: along the linear benches backed by the topsoil, the roughness of the deactivated concrete prevents skateboarding, which is instead encouraged by polished slabs in a dedicated area. Eager to promote the diversity of uses of public space, Frédéric-Charles Aillet has refrained from installing devices that would prohibit lying down on his benches: a sign, among others, of the spirit of conviviality that drives this European project.

Laurent Miguet "