A garden schoolyard for the Jean-Baptiste Galan school

The town of Laigné Saint-Gervais commissioned the Odyssée Paysage and Saje team to redesign the entire playground of the Jean-Baptiste Galan primary school, with a participatory approach. Designed according to the principles of health-promoting urban planning, the project puts the children’s well-being and development at the heart of the process.

It began with an immersion and teaching-led consultation phase with every class to build a shared diagnosis. The children placed on a plan the “unloved” features of their playground (fenced-off areas, a lack of seating and quiet corners, puddles under the shelter, tripping roots, conflicts around football and table tennis) as well as their favourite spots, so that what already works could be kept. Using reference images, they then built models and drew their dream playground on the plan.

This consultation led directly to the brief and the sketch design: an enchanted, playful and poetic garden playground. By turning a paved area into a true garden school, the project creates an ecosystem that awakens curiosity about biodiversity and wonder. Between active play areas and quiet nooks (an agora, a mound, a tunnel, teepee huts, a scented garden, a garden of colours, an orchard, an educational pond, a planted swale, a balance trail), the playground offers a variety of uses that encourage sharing and reconnection with nature.

Status: ongoing, sketch design delivered in early March 2026. Overall budget: €200,000.