The mixed-use tower (town hall + shops + apartments) is planted with hanging gardens adapted to the coastal microclimate, characterized by strong sea winds on the upper floors (up to 300 km/h at 50 meters). The trees within the tower are anemomorphic sculptures, their species chosen for their flexible branching that bends but does not break during storms: Hippophae rhamnoides, Crataegus monogyna, Cupressus macrocarpa, Tamarix gallica, Quercus ilex, Olea europaea, etc. Community greenhouses allow for self-sufficiency. At ground level, a public square on a concrete 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

Architects Jakob+Macfarlane are relying on landscape architects from Sempervirens (created in 2006 under the impetus of Frédéric-Charles Aillet) to add greenery to the iconic tower of the Belgian Biarritz.

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

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

To add greenery to a tower that will serve as a contemporary emblem for the Belgian seaside resort of Knokke-Le-Zoute, the landscape design agency Sempervirens is taking Bob Dylan's refrain literally: "The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind." The shimmering canopy of the building's 14 stories will give landscape designer Frédéric-Charles Aillet the opportunity to express his neo-romantic credo: "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 serve as an urban landmark.

dune ecosystem

Before sitting down at his drawing board, Frédéric-Charles Aillet immersed himself in the dune ecosystem during two days of solitary walks. In the local nature reserve, he observed the impact of the winds, which can reach speeds of up to 275 km/h, on the forms of local vegetation. Three species will structure his project: pinks (Ammophila arenaria) with their shaggy, ball-shaped flowers; sea thrift (Armeria maritima), which also grows in ball-shaped clusters, with flowers ranging from white to red; and sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides), one of the shrubs most deeply rooted in the dunes, whose orange berries will echo the tower's dominant color. These natural sources will help ensure the project complies with the firm's guidelines, which stipulate a minimum of 80% local species in the plant life of its projects. The remaining 20% will contribute to the development of a building dedicated to commerce, administrative activities, leisure, and housing—in other words, a manifesto of vertical functional diversity in a seaside resort. In addition to the inevitable umbrella pines that define the resort, a holly cultivar with orange berries will reinforce the presence of this color, also echoed in the walkways by nasturtiums and by crocuses in the central patio. The landscape architect will balance this hue with its complementary color: a signature Sempervirens design, a blue "S" of morning glories, accompanied by cascading rosemary, will run through the 14 floors.

Self-grafted igloos

While he draws inspiration from nature when choosing his plants, the designer doesn't hesitate to challenge the local practice of pruning, the urban impact of which he discovered during his solitary walks. He contrasts the brutality of this practice with the gentle, self-grafted igloo-like shapes created by willows and hornbeams, which he uses on the esplanade as windbreaks and sunshades.

Dedicated to outdoor landscaping, this latest source of plant inspiration reveals the scope of the mission entrusted by the lead architect to the landscape architect, based on 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 road for hosting the market.

Among the technical innovations accompanying the architectural project, the root anchoring of trees and shrubs relies on a double stainless steel structure: a grid contains the root ball and serves as an attachment point for a net. In the greenhouses, pots arranged on shelves are connected to the rainwater harvesting system. The landscape architect's inventiveness also extended to the choice of prefabricated paving for the 17,000 m² esplanade, complementing the precast concrete: along the linear benches set against the topsoil, the roughness of the exposed aggregate concrete discourages skateboarding, while polished slabs, in a dedicated area, encourage this practice. Keen to promote diverse uses of the public space, Frédéric-Charles Aillet deliberately avoided installing any features that would prevent people from lying down on the benches: one sign, among others, of the spirit of conviviality that animates this European project.

Laurent Miguet