Outside-In

Town Planning
Fontainebleau, France

Private gardens in French suburbs are consummate displays of domestic horticulture, though never actually on display. It’s characteristic of these neighborhoods to wall off the sidewalk and compartmentalize these beautiful gardens into a waffle of residential lots. To invert this privacy, and connect homeowners to the nearby park, a new common space is pushed between existing lots by shifting property lines in proportion to the size of each parcel. This creates a new alleyway for entry, play, and socializing, at once retaining and redefining the boundary between domestic gardens and civic sidewalks.

In collaboration with Danniely Alexandra Staback Rodríguez, Maria Roldán, and Arshaya Sood