Agence & Philosophie

The genesis of LEU Reunion was based on the will of its founders to be creative players in the field of development in order to be able to offer architects, developers and clients a regulatory and conceptual framework favourable to the production of the tropical city of tomorrow. Indeed it is essential that this context be adapted, otherwise, however effective the projects may be, they will not have the same impact between a favourable or unfavourable environment. LEUréunion was and still is an R&D laboratory of the architects and urban planners who created it. Many researchers have passed through the agency, scientific or technical partnerships have been built, research is ongoing, and in-depth actions are permanently inscribed in the heart of the agency.

Our work was therefore quickly and strongly oriented towards the recurring problems of of development in tropical environments, namely :

• The fight against the urban heat island, by working on plant cover, a great skill of Michel Reynaud member of the APN and with the support of ecologists in specific expertise; but also by an approach to urban aerology or the expertise of Jacques Gandemer with the support of the Eiffel laboratory is fundamental.
• Reflection on the stormwater management as close as possible to the path of the drop of water: fight againstsoil erosion, les floods, the conservation of permeability, water infiltration to the plot, always in coherence with the landscape project.
• The place of the car in the city and thus the problem of soft and public transport. We have worked and are working on several TCSP projects on the island.
• The role of plants through biodiversity matrices and ecological restoration, again this is an approach linked to the territory where the reconstitution of ecosystems, les collective gardens and/or workers take a fundamental role in the quality of the city, and the development of biodiversity.
• Reflection onurban lighting, respecting the night and the Reunionese sky, with all the positive consequences on the nocturnal life of animals, the respect of plant cycles but also human health.
• The definition of cities and territories relevant to the future of Reunion Island, through the enhancement of local culture and the development of the indispensable concept of intensity in a reduced territory with strong demographic pressure. The sustainable, welcoming, resilient, gentle, convivial, comfortable, fertile, productive city ... is the city that LEU Réunion is looking for contextually in each project, but also, it is the overall geography of the territory that challenges us, the forests and fields, the gullies and ramparts are essential approved partners of the urbanised environment. It is moreover this approach which led us to participate in the Eco-PLU of Saint Pierre, in order to bring reflections on the scale of a large communal territory.