Place de la République and public space masterplanLimoges (87)

How can a dense, mineral historic city adapt to climate change? In Limoges, the public space masterplan makes this question the starting point of the project. It proposes a change of paradigm: the city no longer shelters from the heat with stone alone, it finds shade beneath the trees, cools down with water and shadow, and rediscovers in vegetation part of its comfort and its beauty.

The old centre is encircled by a ring of boulevards. The masterplan turns it into a great tree-lined promenade linking the station, the squares, the cathedral and the banks of the Vienne. Across 75 hectares, streets and squares answer one another and form a single landscape, where people walk in the shade from one district to the next. The streets of the centre become true inhabited groves: closely planted trees, multi-stemmed shrubs, an understorey of ferns and grasses, small clearings with benches, while the façades, the shop windows and, at the end of the vistas, the church spires remain legible.

On Place de la République, groves and large climber-covered pergolas filter the light and draw moving shadows on the ground; water jets and a light mist cool the air and delight the children. On Place Wilson, the mall of plane trees thickens with groves, and a misting pergola shelters the café terraces during the hottest hours.

The project also opens a new relationship with history. The aim is neither to freeze the city in its stone setting nor to erase it, but to carry its story forward: the street patterns, squares and monuments remain the city's landmarks, and vegetation writes a new chapter, attentive to the climate to come.