The design of the paving sett is determined by the general concept being deployed in the Diagonal project: the transformation of an expressway for through traffic into a green corridor, a place to stroll, where pedestrians have a prominent place in the leafy shade of the trees that grow along the avenue. One of the challenges of the project is to conserve almost all the trees, mostly planes, that shape the avenue’s image and cast their shade on the ground. To enhance this shade, the pattern of the paving reproduces the leaves of this tree.
The plane tree leaf is made up of the union of four juxtaposed setts. The particularity of the design means that if the tiles are rotated and laid differently, the pattern continues to work, and the representation obtained is a geometrization of the shadow cast by a plane tree leaf.
Relief and texture are achieved with an elastomer mould bottom, while colour and tonality are achieved by the combination of aggregates, inorganic colourants, additives, and high strength white or grey cement. The tiles sit on a rigid concrete slab of 15 to 18 cm, designed for pedestrian use with ocasional vehicle traffic service, poured on a soil sub-base.