A seaside resort transformed into an icon of bold, visionary architecture
La Grande Motte, a seaside resort that has become an icon of architecture and audacity, rose from the sands thanks to the imagination of its architect Jean Balladur, who turned it into a utopia come true. For the urban planning, he drew inspiration from Chandigarh, which Le Corbusier had just turned into a garden city; for the architecture, from Brasilia, which Oscar Niemeyer had just turned into a total work of art in moulded concrete. He also drew on pre-Columbian symbolism and sun worship to create the City of Pyramids.
By completely overturning the codes of urban architecture, Jean Balladur gave La Grande Motte a powerful destiny: first an insolent work of art, then a city with a controversial image, and today an icon of contemporary architecture.
Fifty years after its construction, the architect’s project has come to fruition. He succeeded in creating a veritable oasis of greenery, reserving nearly two-thirds of the city’s surface area for vegetation and lagoons. La Grande Motte also benefits from remarkable biodiversity and undeniable ecological interest and richness, with diverse environments (dunes, lagoons, pine forests, wetlands, sea).
La Grande Motte boasts three major innovations in its origins: “green” and sustainable urban planning ahead of its time; innovative architecture with strong symbolic value; and a social and societal model for holidays that is constantly being reinvented.
La Grande Motte’s future therefore draws on its DNA to tackle new challenges, continue to invent the tourism of tomorrow by successfully making the ecological transition, preserving its identity and working to help people flourish through encounters.
Sustainability
La Grande Motte was originally founded to offer and experiment with a new form of tourism through three major innovations:
Its first challenge is therefore already clear: to do everything possible to preserve and develop the intellectual and formal richness of its original intentions. But the challenges now lie in the prism of climate and adaptation.
Its second challenge will therefore be to successfully transition to a form of tourism that is more in tune with the climate and social issues of the moment. La Grande-Motte is fully aware of this and has already demonstrated, through Green Destinations, that it has begun to play its part with great determination.
The resort will therefore make this its third challenge: to succeed with enough boldness and innovation to remain a source of inspiration. A laboratory for the tourism of the future. From the largest projects (thalassotherapy, etc.) to the simplest actions, all efforts will have their share of innovation.
If we had to choose one example that best sums up La Grande Motte’s sustainable strategy, it would be Moderato: a new way of monitoring a tourist destination through the lens of climate transition.
La Grande Motte received a Green Destinations Gold Award in 2025.
Visit their official website for more details on the destination’s sustainability efforts and travel inspiration!
Important Notice: Awards, seals, recognitions, and competition results presented on this website do not constitute certification unless explicitly stated as “GSTC-certified against Green Destinations Standard” following independent third-party conformity assessment.
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