The forecourt of the National Museum of Natural History, France, embodies a traditional, highly curated view of nature—one rooted in a Western colonial mindset. Historically designed as a botanical showcase of exotic flora, the space reflects human dominion over nature, prioritizing aesthetic order over ecological integrity. While celebrated for its historical significance, this approach disregards local geology and environmental shifts, reducing nature to a static display rather than a dynamic, evolving force.
Liberated Nature seeks to challenge this paradigm, transforming the forecourt into a self-sustaining ecosystem that embraces geological history and the realities of a changing climate. The design rejects rigid boundaries and artificial order, instead fostering an environment where native vegetation thrives. By reintroducing endemic species and responding to the site’s underlying geological conditions, the project offers an alternative vision—one that prioritizes resilience, education, and environmental stewardship.
A Landscape Shaped by Geology
At the core of the design is an acknowledgment of Paris’s hidden landscapes—the vast network of quarries beneath the city. The museum itself sits atop these hollow spaces, where sinkholes remain an ever-present geological risk. Rather than resisting this instability, Liberated Nature embraces it. The design carves a deliberate “crack” into the existing concrete expanse, leading visitors toward a sunken landscape that re-establishes the site’s natural geological conditions.
Lowering the ground plane not only exposes the city’s stratigraphy but also fosters a cooler, moister microclimate, harking back to Paris’s pre-urbanized environment. This sunken garden serves as a climatic refuge—a counterbalance to the city’s increasing heat and drought conditions. By capturing and retaining moisture, it provides a buffer against extreme weather, offering a model for climate-adaptive urban landscapes.
Material and Planting Strategy
Materials found in the city itself—quarried limestone, remnants of urban construction—are repurposed to create a contemporary rock garden. The hardscape elements bear the imprints of local geology, with concrete surfaces molded using excavated soil, embedding the memory of Paris’s underground within the site. Dyes derived from different geological layers further enhance this narrative, allowing visitors to read the history of the land through materiality.
A pioneering plant palette thrives in the nutrient-poor soils, celebrating the resilience of species adapted to Paris’s native geology. Scattered tumbled stones, reminiscent of gravel deposits, create a dynamic ground plane, supporting a mosaic of drought-tolerant and water-adaptive vegetation.
A Living, Breathing Landscape
This reimagined forecourt is not a static monument but an evolving landscape responsive to natural forces. On hot summer days, a fine mist emerges from discreet sprinklers among the gravel, cooling the air and enhancing the immersive experience of the sunken garden. During rainfall, the depression fills with water, acting as a bioretention system that mitigates stormwater runoff and demonstrates the principles of water-wise landscapes.
Through this transformation, the forecourt shifts from a relic of colonial-era botanical collection to an educational and ecological asset. Visitors no longer encounter nature as a controlled spectacle but as an active, self-regenerating force—one that reveals the layered histories of geology, climate, and human intervention. Liberated Nature repositions the museum’s threshold as a place of inquiry and adaptation, where nature is not simply displayed, but empowered to reclaim its agency.
Liberated Nature nestled within a Sinkhole
Project Credits: Peixuan Wu, Liwei Shen, Jingyan Wang
Image and Text Credits: Peixuan Wu, Liwei Shen
Location: Paris, France
First Place Winner of the LA+ EXOTIQUE Design Ideas Competition