Place D’Armes

The Place d'Armes is above all a large civic space, both green and urban. It is the heart of Yverdon, but it is also the great civic forum of the Yverdonnoise agglomeration. Its beauty is contained in its formidable scale, which it is essential to maintain, and in the links it establishes with the landscapes of the Jura which can be seen from it.

A very simple geometrical operation turns the 'Terrain de Jeux' into a noticeably concave surface, and thus builds paradoxical perspectives without reducing its monumentality; it builds places with different vocations without losing unity, it naturally incorporates the rocky landscapes of the Jura at its edges which, in turn, house the necessary architectures in the square; and the landscapes covered with various meadows, some with wild flowers, which can be mowed in different ways.

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The rest, the 'plataforme urbanie', tree-lined with pruned plane trees as elsewhere in Yverdon, is a paved surface that allows for the weekly market and where the ground plane of the historic centre of Yverdon extends naturally over the square. This is an activated space that establishes a strong contrast with the 'terrain', and, thus, both feed each other, reinforcing their visual and civic values.

The geometric and topographical deformation of the 'terrain de jeux' allows all the required uses to be located under its green carpet, the vehicle and pedestrian access to the car park and its ventilation, the motorbike and bicycle parking, and the kiosk and public toilets; without adding more architectural objects to the square.

A simple system of fountains and water features will allow water to have a concrete and intense physical presence. These water features are conceived as gentle "pits", at the lowest point of which are randomly and disconcertingly reproducing the geological upwellings of geysers.

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The Terrain de Jeux reinforces the story, while maintaining the value of the existing void in the Place d'Armes. It is generic and specific; it diminishes the presence of architecture; with a soft and intense, moderate and delicate gesture, it produces multiple perspectives; it is simple and economical, allowing formal and budgetary efforts to be concentrated where they are most visible; it constructs its own limits, but also those of the adjoining spaces; it can be easily crossed and is totally accessible; it frames the monumental perspectives of the buildings of the Collège and the Téâtre Benno Besson; and, being completely artificial and urban, it refers strongly to the landscapes of the Jura meadows.

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