François Vadepied
Jury 2025 /
Wagon landscaping
wagon-landscaping.fr
François Vadepied, landscape architect, is Wagon landscaping co-founder. He got an initial diploma in geophysics at IPG of Paris and cartography at the IGN. In 2003, after fifteen years in the digital cartography field, he decided to radically change his work. He graduated as a landscape architect in ENSP Versailles in 2007. Since 2018, he has become a State landscape architect consultant in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department. He teaches at the National School of Landscape of Versailles and at Esaj in Paris.
He is co-responsible for the development of the agency and project management.
more by Wagon landscaping
Special Mention by the LILA 2024 Jury
Still Alive – Rocaille Vivante
Still Alive is a temporary intervention, small in scale yet powerful in meaning or at least in an abstract charge. Weaving together two different time periods introduces a spark for thinking about contemporary issues within a preserved historic garden. The installation is grounded in topical discourse by re-using materials and points at some disturbance by offering a highly aesthetical and dense arrangement within the quiet historical setting. It is a witty juxtaposition of preserving heritage and ecology that drives one to reflect on social and environmental changes, the eclectic strangeness of our time, and how landscape architecture practice can answer playfully and provocatively. The relation between the historical and the today ignited a lively discussion among the jury members, offering different perspectives on the work, which proves that landscape architecture can produce highly charged conceptual statements on a small scale.
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LILA 2024 Office of the Year
Wagon landscaping
Wagon Landscaping is a Paris-based practice that has been featured on Landezine for many years now. They gave lectures for our platform, and our enthusiasm for their work has only been growing with time, mainly because we see it as a more and more relevant and interesting for wider use. Although their projects address a narrow niche of small-scale situations, the modes of attention and engagement with landscape that Wagon practices offer pertinent answers to how we could rethink the approach to landscape in other typologies and scales.
Their work is often conceptually intriguing and bold, yet based on minimal transformation, mainly dealing with conditions for growth and studying dynamics of the soil, plants and water. A range of projects address asphalt opening and investigate the aesthetics that emerge from an ethical position of leaving the material in place. Although it could be seen as a reference to artist Lois Weinberger’s work titled Burning and Walking (1992), Wagon took the approach further into research and a range of diverse applications. They build most of their projects by themselves; the office is also well-equipped with shovels, rakes and hoes.
The questions that arise from this position are a discussion we need to have. How much should we change our engagement with landscape, program, transformation, and maintenance to minimize negative environmental impact? Where is the sensible and possible line between emission-heavy constructions and Wagon’s DIY reuse approach?
Through their clever landscape ideas and the masterful Versailles School-educated practice, Wagon addresses big issues on a small scale and establishes itself as a unique voice that should be heard widely in our global professional community.
Read MorePetite Ceinture, Square de la rue de la Mare
In 2018, Paris City Councill decided to open “Petite Ceinture” to citizens: a large railway wasteland all around Paris. Wagon Landscaping took part in the Ceinturama group which was in charge of activating this progressive opening. First actions started with site walks and workshops open to habitants, associations and technical services to develop diagnosis, mainly […]
Read MoreAsphalt Jungle
Dewatering and fertilization by in situ artificial soils recycling : this is the Asphalt jungle concept key aim. Thanks to FAIRE project accelerator, garden takes place in Elogie-Siemp (social landlord) mineral courtyard, on 11th Paris district. The easy tech way of doing may be resume in cutting asphalt, de-compacting sub-layers, putting organic materials and planting […]
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LILA 2025 Sponsor
