In May 2025, Louis Canesse joined the ECT landscaping team as a landscape designer. Today, he talks about the landscape designer’s role in the company’s non-built projects.
FFrom project planning to site redevelopment, his work involves transforming landscapes. Thanks to ECT, soil excavated during construction and public works becomes a resource, and abandoned sites are brought back into use. Redevelopment involves understanding a landscape, working with its constraints, and imagining useful, sustainable, and dynamic spaces.
A collective, concrete effort, where each project must leave a positive mark—on the landscape, biodiversity, and residents.
A personal journey from architecture to landscape
My interest in cities and landscapes developed over the course of a multidisciplinary career. After studying architecture, I decided to pursue a more technical approach with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, followed by a master’s degree in urban engineering and urban planning, which I obtained in 2024. Although I am originally from northern France, my first professional experiences took me to Istanbul and Berlin, and of course to France.
I joined ECT in May 2025 as a landscape designer, attracted by the company’s unique business model: considering land as a resource to be developed for the purpose of redeveloping territories. This working environment, which is in line with my environmental values, allows me to express an open and sensitive vision of the landscape. And the diversity of projects gives me real creative freedom.
Requalifying a site, giving it new meaning
The redevelopment of a site involves several dimensions, including historical, topographical, and geological, and must take into account urban planning constraints, easements, and environmental impacts. Designing a new urban park or rehabilitating agricultural wasteland means proposing a vision in terms of volume, drawing new models, inserting them into the landscape, and defining a new spatial organization that will support the site’s new uses, particularly facilities and pathways. A project must be connected to the existing natural and urban fabric. My role is to work on this integration in a fair and consistent manner.
The other pillar of landscape integration is the restoration of ecological environments. Preserving biodiversity and strengthening green and blue infrastructure also shape the project, which must reflect our environmental obligations and go beyond them thanks to the recommendations of ecologists. My proposals for plant palettes and species selection must accompany and support this ecological program.
This requires close internal collaboration with ECT’s Development department and dialogue with the local authority and the departments responsible for environmental permits. These discussions result in the production of highly detailed landscaping plans. These plans are important in helping local authorities and future users to visualize the site’s future .
From plans to site redevelopment
Once the project has been approved and authorized, it is time to move from design to construction. I then work closely with ECT’s Operations department to translate the landscaping plans into operational documents. Phasing plans structure the work schedule: delimitation of the various areas for receiving excavated soil, possible stripping of topsoil for reuse at the end of the project, layout of access roads.
Once the excavated soil has been delivered and the hill contours and slope profiles completed, I produce cross-sections and technical plans. These documents, together with the landscaping specifications, guide the landscaping work carried out by the parks department and the installation of equipment. They determine the precise location of ditches, swales, paths, parking lots, and recreational facilities. This work ensures continuity between the project plans and the actual implementation of the project.
A collective commitment to local development
The collective dimension of projects that involve all departments is very stimulating. The richness of my assignments also comes from the diversity of the projects: landscaped parks, agricultural fields, outdoor sports fields, etc. In very different contexts and territories, whether in Île-de-France, Hauts-de-France, Grand-Est, Occitanie, or even internationally through our subsidiaries Landify US and Landify Germany.
I really appreciate the tangible aspect of my work: reusing excavated soil allows us to design, finance, and, above all, carry out projects that are consistent with the landscape, improve biodiversity, and benefit local residents. The beauty of the circular economy model deployed through the reuse of excavated soil is that the project comes at no cost to the community. It is a very powerful vehicle for rehabilitating abandoned sites.
By 2026, I will be working more specifically with the ECT Hauts-de-France agency, a return to my roots that will allow me to strengthen my knowledge of the region. It will also be an opportunity to deepen my expertise in the selection of plant species, working closely with ECT’s ecologist, who is also a land developer in the Hauts-de-France region.
