Mon Trésor, Mauritius | 2016
The Mon Trésor site is located approximately two kilometres from Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. It is therefore ideally situated as an integrated development node.
The team of landscape architects and urban designers were tasked to develop a vision for the site that has a rich heritage in the production of sugar, as well as the discovery of dodo fossils. Our challenge was to create a public realm that embraces this heritage. In response, a spatial backbone was introduced that stretches from the historical railway line on the west, to the beautiful beach and marine park on the east. This backbone was conceived as a public walkway, connecting a series of denser development nodes and heritage sites.
We convinced the client to launch the development in the node proposed around the historic village (located to the centre of the site) and then to develop incrementally towards the beach. Selling the high value beachfront properties (that forms part of a large-scale development) first, could result in lowering the desirability and value of property father away from the beach. To counter this, we proposed that the historical village becomes the centre and identity of the entire development, allowing the land developer to retain the high value beachfront property, until the development is established, and higher land sale prices could be achieved.