EventsTransforming Landscapes

Transforming Landscapes

Michel Desvigne

MDP Michel Desvigne Paysagiste, Paris

Event from
30 January
2020
Foto von Michel Desvigne

Event

Topic

Currently most projects affecting the land are obviously projects that involve transformation. Our cities exist, our land is occupied. It is a question of making them denser, changing their allocation, embellishing them. We know empirically the duration of these transformations, whether they involve large landscapes or bits of the cities. We know from experience that thirty or so years are needed to form a neighborhood, and that, in addition, these relatively long processes undergo permanent corrections. The initial vision should also be able to adapt to the hazards of the economy and to changing requirements. Hence the need to design tools and methods that make it possible to integrate this idea of duration in the way sites are transformed.

Abstract

Michel Desvigne has addressed the transformation of the profession of landscape architect and its challenges, which now involve climate and ecology more than aesthetics, as was previously the case.

Michel Desvigne

Michel Desvigne is a landscape architect internationally renowned for his rigorous and contemporary designs and for the originality and relevance of his research work. He has provided landscape designs in collaboration with major world architectural studios such as Herzog & de Meuron, Foster + Partners or Richard Rogers or Rem Koolhaas.

Photo© Vincent Mercier

Work

Michel Desvigne has developed projects in more than twenty-five countries, where his work helps in highlighting the landscapes and rendering them visible, in understanding the mechanisms at work giving them form, and in acting upon these mechanisms in order to transform the landscapes and imbue them with meaning.

Among Michel Desvigne’s most renowned awards are 2019 AIA Honor Award for Detroit East Riverfront Framework Plan (US), 2014 European Prize for Urban Public Space and 2011 France’s Grand Prize for Urbanism for his continual contribution to and reflection upon the city and larger territory.

Project from Michel Desvigne – Bordeaux Parc aux angeliques
Vieux Port, Marseille Photo: F Joliot
Project from Michel Desvigne – Marseille, Vieux Port
Paris-Saclay; Photo: F Fromonot
Project from Michel Desvigne – Vortrag
Bordeaux Parc aux angeliques Photo: Mairie de Bordeaux
Project from Alexandra Hagen – Vortrag
Photo: Astrid Eckert
Foto: © Astrid Eckert
I see myself more as a researcher, less as an executor. I help to see the landscape, to understand the mechanisms that are at work and give shape, and to act on these mechanisms to bring about change.
Michel Desvigne Landschaftsarchitekt