Assistance provided to the contracting authority to create a living farm in Villages Nature – Marne-la-Vallée
Location: Marne-la-Vallée (Seine-et-Marne, Ile-de-France)
Project outline:
The Villages Nature resort is under construction in Marne-la-Vallée in a collaboration between Disneyland Paris and the Groupe Pierre & Vacances – Center Parcs. The resort will eventually have capacity for 25 000 guests, who will have access to several different ‘worlds’ (themed activity zones), including Aqualagoon, the Lakeside Promenade, the Extraordinary Gardens, the Enchanted Island and the interactive Farm. Villages Nature commissioned the Horwath HTL team to develop the farm concept.
Solution and implementation proposed by Horwath HTL:
Our team used Center Parcs as a reference model for designing the Farm. At Center Parcs, domestic animals are kept alongside a play area that has both outdoor and covered sections, in addition to a restaurant. The aim of Villages Nature is to give guests an authentic experience. We designed the project around the following aspects:
- An interactive farm: poultry, rabbits, goats, pigs, etc.
- A dairy farm with 35 cows, including a milking parlour where the cows are milked publicly twice daily, a publicly viewable dairy for producing cheese and milk, and demonstrations and workshops which are open to the public
- A shop
- A covered play area
- An outdoor play area
- A themed cottage garden and greenhouse
- Demonstration/workshop rooms (additional fee)
- A restaurant
- A pony club
Project status: The schedule was drawn up in 2011. In 2013, the team worked with the architect to assist in designing the farm and, in 2014, the operating proposal was formulated. The site is currently under construction and is scheduled to open to the public in early 2017.
