Le jardin d'Astrolabe

The Jardin de l'Astrolabe sits on a concrete deck suspended above the railway tracks leading into the Gare d'Austerlitz. Its most distinctive feature is a series of raised, geometric metal planters that cut through the space, modeled after the armillary spheres used by ancient astronomers to chart the stars. The garden was built to bridge the gap between two neighborhoods severed by the deep rail trench. Designers embedded glass panels in the walkways, revealing the trains rushing through the dark tunnel beneath the greenery.