The tropical agronomy garden -Le Jardin d'Agronomie Tropicale - Bois de Vincennes woods- Plans for evolving the site

The tropical agronomy garden -Le Jardin d'Agronomie Tropicale- Bois de Vincennes

Situated on the east side of the Bois de Vincennes, on the border of the residential districts of Nogent-sur-Marne, the Jardin d’Agronomie Tropicale, in  its wooded setting, covers an area of 6.7 hectares and has a scientific centre and a garden that is open to the public, laid out among works of art, exhibition pavilions and  monuments commemorating soldiers from the colonies who died for France.

The headquarters of the new institution, the Jardin d’Agronomie Colonial, belonged to the state when it was created in 1899. In 2003 the boundaries were redefined enabling the abandoned garden area to be handed over to the City of Paris, who already owned the land,  The City of Paris opened the gardens to the public in 2004 and have been renovating them progressively. The State and Île-de-France Region undertook to redevelop the scientific centre.
The renovation in progress raises questions about how the site should evolve and coordinate its natural, historical and scientific aspects and also, on a more long-term basis, the programme, the number of visitors to this little known garden and the baffling question of  how to integrate the garden into the woods on which its turns its back. 
The renovation of the green spaces, the buildings and exhibition pavilions is being done simultaneously giving them a new lease of life and making them welcoming to visitors. Work on the natural surroundings in fact takes precedence, given that renovating the buildings takes time whereas the  gardens need to accommodate visitors immediately. Based on the history of the Colonial Gardens and the layout established at the beginning of the 20th century which created the specific atmospheres of its different areas, the present-day renovation of green spaces could favour a variety of approaches forming: an aesthetically pleasing garden to be visited where memory is paramount (the Indochinese garden), a more user-friendly garden where one can relax in the grass or have a meal or drink on a pavilion terrace, and perhaps a garden where, true to the old garden's cultural origins, one can once again be in direct contact with the earth, opening ways of addressing the new challenges of civilisation.  
The framework put forward by this study aims to coordinate the different actions underway in the garden in order to ensure a certain coherence in time and space linked to its new uses and an increasing number of visitors.

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  • The tropical agronomy garden -Le Jardin d'Agronomie Tropicale - Bois de Vincennes woods – Plans for evolving the site

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