TabulaRasa

Le terril de Noyelles-sous-Lens

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Tabula Rasa

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Tabula Rasa is the epistemological theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception. Proponents of tabula rasa disagree with the doctrine of Innatism which holds that the mind is born already in possession of certain knowledge. In Western philosophy, the concept of tabula rasa can be traced back to the writings of Aristotle who writes in his treatise “Περί Ψυχῆς” (De Anima or On the Soul) of the “unscribed tablet.” In one of the more well- known passages of this treatise he writes that: Haven’t we already disposed of the difficulty about interaction involving a common element, when we said that mind is in a sense potentially whatever is thinkable, though actually it is nothing until it has thought? What it thinks must be in it just as characters may be said to be on a writing-tablet on which as yet nothing stands written: this is exactly what happens with mind.

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Suggestion

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Suggestion #1 Proportion

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Suggestion #2 Memory

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Suggestion #3 Light

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Suggestion #3 Material

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Develop

The huts are built with what you have available.

Creativity is in putting them together.

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The terril of Noyelles-sous-Lens is a land full of potential, once again a space to re-wright.

During years mineral mines transformed the soil, digging, accumulating, then Nature regenerated these territories transformed by man.

In this sense TabulaRasa is an empty space, a corner to recover body and mind, a place to observe from a different point of view the surrounding territory, a chance to re-write upon the unscribed tablet of our mind, the tablet of our lands.

Aire-sur-la-Lys

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Le terril d

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BĂŠthune

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Lens Terril 1

ChaĂŽne des Parcs

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Parc Naturel

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Terrils du Nord de la France

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By collecting soil in bags we define a semi-indoor space, putted at the top of the Landfill of Noyelles.

After climbing the mountain and training the body, you can reach this peaceful place and recover.

You can lay on the bench, breath, meditate, and climb the little stairs to look through the window.

Far away another “terril� is staring at you and reminds you to another potential TabulaRasa hut on the top of it.

An infinite chain of meditation spots looking one to each other could connect the whole territory of the north of France mining area.

Since the TabulaRasa is a space of meditation, several activities connected with the mind and body health can be held inside and around the hut.

Yoga class, meditation sessions, psychological training and even philosophical enquiries can be hosted in TabulaRasa

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General Plan 1:3500 Terril

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The genesis of the shape drew inspiration from the ancient mine entrance.

Since you enter you have the filing to cross a gate that leads you into a quite dark space, like an extrusion of this ancestral shape.

The walls of the hut bend toward the surrounding landscape, so that the window can frame a specific point of view, like a picture inside a room.

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16m 14

elev a t i o n SE

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a. door b. window c. stairs d. bench e. tree

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In order to reduce the ecological impact of our design very few materials will be employed in the construction of our hut: the main one will be the local soil taken from the surrounding to fill the bags, considerably reducing the transportation and disposal fee; the other parts will be entirely made by wood frames, possibly reusing recycled local sources.

In the end of the festival all materials could be easily reused to build similar hut even in other sites or disposed in loco.

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a. Recyclable polypropylene bags fabric b. Reuse wood for the frames and roof c. Red fabric for entrance tent

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c.

Zero Waste

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Construction System Wall • We dig a trench of 45 cm depth along the perimeter of the hut, compacting the underlying layer

• Then we build the walls without matching the joints between the bags of two consecutive rows

• At the end of the construction we fill the trench and compact the ground around the wall to ensure

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Construction System Frame • We build the wood frame separately end we put it upon a multiple layer of bags

• Then we fill the side with the rest of the bags

• finally, we complete the wall reaching the total height of the hut

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From the arrival point the object appears as a solid black sculpture, a mysterious monolithic monument, that suggest the visitor to explore and walk around it

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Once you are at the opposite side, the volume is cut by two pure geometric figures: the triangular shaped door and a squared window facing the panorama.

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Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas: — How comes it to be furnished?

— Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety?

— Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge?

To this I answer, in one word, from EXPERIENCE. Book II - “Of Ideas”, By John Locke

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