"Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo" - Saint-Malo (F).

This project proposes an architectural operation at the cross point of a coastal, urban and industrial territory. Responding to local water management issues, its aim is to define an identity solution for sustainable development of port ecosystems in northern Brittany, around three main objectives: produce cleaner, protect longer, provide better.

PRODUCE CLEANER: what could be more efficient than using the energy generated by natural disasters? The purpose is to upgrade the breakwater to harvest and store the energy of wind and tides. The tidal basin also offers a short-term storage buffer for the windmill production. The long-term storage is carried out by producing green hydrogen from sea water electrolysis. This energy ecosystem is designed to fit autonomously the needs of the entire water distribution system of the hinterland: pumping, processing and dispatching water on 450 hectares of inhabited land located under sea level. \nPROTECT LONGER: how to improve the structure of the existing breakwater to face the strongest waves? The answer is to operate horizontally by connecting to the existing massive wall a light new one, built with a multi-arch prefabricated system made of composite rebars: its quick installation at low tide allows to set up the works out of water. Thus, the wave is broken earlier, protecting the outer port efficiently, without modifying the visual link to the horizon. Between the two walls, the tidal basin solves the silting problem inspired by the first breakwater from 1840. The windmill is then set up as a lighthouse, precisely on the channel alignment, and its height opens a sensitive dialogue with the old cathedral.\nPROVIDE BETTER: Why such infrastructure must activate facilities for daily local residents as well as seasonal visitors? Nowadays, the breakwater is a dead-end 500-meter-long walkway in the middle of a mind-blowing landscape. This project promotes therefore an ambitious revival program for historical key-activities, which made Saint-Malo famous. Firstly, the fishing boats can be relocated in the outer port, avoiding the use of the lock. Tanks would be provided for shellfish using the byproducts of the electrolysis: oxygen, heat and salt. Secondly, a swimming pool takes place on the new wall and a large bathing pool faces the old city walls, defining the only sand beach usable at high tide. Finally, a plaza at the west end of the structure reappears as a viewpoint for the regattas and a jetty for tilting boats.