les jardins de gally, france

Category: Stand Alone

In order to promote the Angers Saint-Laud station as the gateway to the Angevine region, considered the greenest region in France, the national railway company (SNCF) has called on the designer Alexis Tricoire, a pioneer of plant design, to design an emblematic art work*. His inspiration? The suspended gardens of Babylone. The project? A forest in the air. To achieve this poetic installation of high-flying, he appealed to Les Jardins de Gally. 

The trees – Cinnamomum camphora and Ficus nitida – where acclimatised locally in partnership with Les Pépinières du Val d’Erdre. Les Jardins de Gally are now maintaining this creation, coming twice a month and with a remote monitoring, measuring and acting on the various parameters.  

Green is a major tool for sustainable cities. Railways may be the future of sustainable mobility. Let’s green stations and make the plants fly!

 * Angers, West of France, is the French capital for horticulture. The city hosts a unique ecosystem: numerous breeders, nurseries and horticulture firms, as much such as research centres and universities. The national railway company (SNCF) and the Angers Metropolis, in association with Vegepolys Valley, the horticultural innovation business cluster and Agrocampus Ouest, national research and education centre for horticulture and landscape, called for tender for an innovative project. The ambition? Welcome visitors in a green atmosphere, to offer them a unique experience. The place? Inside the station. The constraints? An intense zone of various fluxes, both regional (1-hour Nantes) and national trips (1,5 hour from Paris), with thus a low surface available. The winning project? The vision of the designer Alexis Tricoire, who welcomes nature in the interiors… Including unexpected situations!

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