LA BAULE-ESCOUBLAC SEASIDE PROMENADE

Franklin Azzi Architecture has won the public competition launched by the city of La Baule-Escoublac for the requalification of the seafront's public spaces, alongside Phytolab, landscape designer.

The project management group is rethinking the access to the beach from the seafront and the main commercial streets. The idea is to consider the seafront promenade by repositioning it within the scale of the city, of its great landscapes and of its history in order to reveal the exceptional intrinsic qualities of the bay and to affirm its identity.

By recovering permeabilities and new connections between the forest, the city, the neighborhoods, the beach and the sea, Franklin Azzi Architecture improves users comfort and anticipates the development of soft mobility by creating spaces for meetings, animation and conviviality facing the ocean.

The architectural approach for the two concerned avenues, Avenue Louis Lajarrige and Avenue du Général de Gaulle, meets several objectives:

• The increase of functionalities aiming the well-being and the comfort of the users through the creation of balconies, promontories and ramps for people with reduced mobility, the revalorization of the green spaces, the implementation of numerous bicycle racks, etc.
• The improvement of user's flow through a better distribution and delimitation of the lanes reserved for each mode of transportation. Parking spaces will be eliminated in order to enlarge the seafront promenade for the benefit of new pedestrian areas and generous and safe bicycle paths.
• Renovation and reinforcement of the embankment structure, especially through the creation of wide wooden steps and a metal structure to accompany the users' descent onto the beach.
• The enhancement of the identity of the La Baule seafront through the creation of elements with a strong identity, such as the two shades placed at the intersection of the promenade and the avenues Lajarrige and Général de Gaulle designed to protect the walker from the sun and to create frames on the environment. Thanks to a fine and aerial metallic structure, these architectural elements will offer a transparency and a visual continuity of the shops on the sea front towards the ocean.

For our project management team - Phytolab, Franklin Azzi Architecture, Agence Magnum, Studio Vicarini, Artelia, Respublica and Oasiis - it is all about deeply modifying the use and the perception of the site to make it a real place of life and an exemplary destination, open to all users; inhabitants, professionals and visitors.