Just When Are You Going To Remove That Scaffolding?: Revisiting Open Structure as an Anti-Monument in Versailles | Masters Design Project

Site Context

The site of the project consisted of a garden just a stone’s throw from the Palace of Versailles, the Potager du Roi—small by Versailles standards, yet large when one considers that this originally concerned “merely” the vegetable garden of Louis XIV. Today, it houses the École Nationale Supérieure de Paysage, which will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary. The celebration comes at a time when the school has outgrown its capacity: adaptation seems inevitable. But how, in an environment where that one word—change—is met with the greatest resistance?

Design Process

To formulate an answer to this question, drawing was not only used as mere visualization but as a research method to explore, analyze, and communicate different design interventions. Early on in the design process it was recognized that the garden is situated between two hills: on one hill lie the city and the palace and on the other a gently rolling woodland landscape. The border area between this landscape and the built environment coincides with the current educational buildings and the network of walls that compartmentalize the Potager du Roi.

These walls proved to be a useful point of reference for exploring the spatial qualities of the site. Using five lenses—monumentality, permeability, chiaroscuro, spatiality, and regularity—either spatial characteristics or interventions were examined (varying in scale from S to XL). These strategies served as spatial data that informed a series of design models.

Final Outcome

The project takes the form of a long, linear building that aligns in scale and expression with the axial layout and monumental architecture of Versailles. It aims to soften the currently enclosed nature of the Potager du Roi, opening it toward the city while establishing a clear and recognizable identity for the garden.

By elevating the structure above ground level, a new public floor is created beneath it, allowing an uninterrupted connection between the city and the garden. This elevation is achieved through large steel trusses placed at 48-metre intervals. Beyond their structural function, these trusses also house vertical circulation, incorporating stairs, elevators, and building services.

The main building mass—the Strip—is suspended from these trusses and organized as a sequence of interconnected spaces, inspired by the enfilade arrangement seen in the nearby palace. Continuous balconies run along the façades, and their generous size allows them to function as extensions of the educational spaces.

Conclusion: Ultimately, this project reinterprets Versailles’ rigid order through openness, continuity, and adaptability. It bridges past and present, transforming constraint into opportunity while reconnecting the garden, the school, and the city into a cohesive spatial experience.

[This Academic Project has been published with text and images submitted by the student]