La Grande Motte – redesign for the 50th anniversary

20 kilometers from Montpellier lies the small town of La Grande Motte on the Mediterranean. Since the early 1960s, a seaside resort has been built here in a former marshland, which is still considered a unique, futuristic town today. The visionary architect Jean Balladur designed extraordinary pyramid-shaped tourist residences here. The avant-garde architecture references pre-Columbian temples in Mexico as well as the coastal dunes and the Cévennes mountains in the south-east of the Massif Central. The so-called “Florida of the future” was to become a new Eldorado for millions of vacationers. The extraordinary appearance was reason enough to later designate the entire ensemble as a “Patrimoine du XXème siècle”. Critical voices, on the other hand, speak of a concreting of the coast as a center of package tourism.

To mark the 50th anniversary of La Grande Motte, Studio Leclercq Associés was commissioned to redesign the Pompidou and Tabarly harbor basins. For the town, the redesign of the promenade is a promising first step in the Ville Port project, which is being led by the town of La Grande Motte and L’Or Aménagement. In the long term, La Grande Motte is set to evolve from a vacation resort inhabited by holidaymakers only in summer into an independent town where people live all year round and interact with the neighboring areas of the Pays de l’Or and the agglomeration of Montpellier. It is hoped that the project will diversify local economic activities, as well as increasing the mix of residents and housing types. To this end, the Ville Port project will activate the public spaces of the port between the Levant and Couchant districts through a promenade and link the two districts in the long term through the construction of the new Collins district.

The planners from Leclercq Associés were tasked with extending the harbor promenades, unsealing parking spaces and redesigning the public squares on the Pompidou and Tabarly quays as well as creating new commercial spaces. Before the extensive renovation of the city center, which is located around the port, the office first took a close look at the existing buildings and determined: “[…]The futuristic city envisioned by Jean Balladur in 1963 is a model of environmental urbanism, promoting lifestyles that are both modern and nature-oriented, favoring pedestrian life and the slow rhythm of the sun‘scourse.” La Grande Motte has undoubtedly become a green and blue city that is connected to the sky, the earth and the sea.

In addition to the imposing architecture of Jean Balladur, the work of landscape architect Pierre Pillet has also left its mark on the town. He designed a forest network with over thirty thousand trees – including umbrella pines, plane trees and white poplars – which today protects the city exposed to the sea from salt and wind. Leclercq Associés want to build on this progressive spirit of the past with their project by continuing Balladur’s gesture and updating it at the same time. To this end, the architects have given plenty of space to vegetation and incorporated natural elements and bioclimatic considerations into the design process.

Leclercq Associés cite the intensive use of public space as a special feature of La Grande Motte. It is a symbol of the vibrant life of the city. The harbour promenade is seen as the backbone of this vitality and should also be developed in the future as a hub for movement, socializing, trade and festivities. To this end, the planners are organizing the docks according to a dual logic of promenades and squares that take into account the seasonality and lifestyle of the residents. After all, the public space lives from different temporalities: from strolling to daily jogging, from long summer evenings to large annual events such as the boat show and festivals…

In order to create space for all of this, the entire pedestrian and cycling zone was designed to be heavily frequented and used, especially in summer. A 1.5-kilometre-long and seven-metre-wide promenade, which has been doubled in size compared to the existing area, serves this purpose. A well thought-out concept for the sunlight on these public spaces creates sunny areas in winter and shaded areas in summer. A total of 245 deciduous trees were planted and around fifty palm trees were transplanted. This will enable La Grande Motte to combat the increasingly frequent heatwaves in the future. The installation of new street furniture also increases the quality of stay for different local users. This includes seating, but also colorful, geometrically patterned shade providers. At night, the open space is given a special touch through detailed lighting design. Light poles gently illuminate the docks and create urban stage effects when plant shadows and architectural patterns intermingle.

But Leclercq Associés did not limit themselves to redesigning the promenade in La Grande Motte. The redesign of the Pompidou Docks also extends to the façades. In order to make the iconic architecture of the seaside resort visible again, the planners designed new glass extensions for the stores on the first floor, extended the terraces and extended the paving to the harbor basins.

The design thus succeeds in harmonizing not only structural architecture and open space, but also past and future. “Jean Balladur‘slegacy evokes a strong connection between the built environment and nature, which has guided the project,” says Leclercq Associés. And this also explains the title of the project “La Ball*ade”. On the one hand, it alludes to the English word for a poem or a piece of music – and at the same time makes a reference to Jean Balladur. Leclercq Associés see their project as a respectful homage to the original visionary behind La Grande Motte. The future will show whether they have succeeded in creating something similarly iconic.