CONVERSATIONS
Conversations
Mapping Conversations
Halima Benaissa & Maisanne Walles
Patrick Chaimovitch
Julien Beller
We used various mapping techniques to record our conversations that took place in Colombes. These conversations will form the basis for a series of key actors that may exist within some of our project work.
Sebastian Eymard
Halima
This mapping shows the conversation with Halima, her daughter Maisanne and her friend Raimond. Life in social housing in the suburbs as an immigrant was discussed as was the new community garden initiative, which Halima and others in the community are trying to initiate. They hope to address some of the issues of living in an area where there is a lack of community and people little interaction. Also living in high rise housing does not allow for individual gardens so it is hoped this community garden will provide a shared green space for the inhabitants.
Conversations
parents
Halima’s daughter
€€€
+ house
Avenue Audran, Colombes
HALIMA
aged
our e nc
ALGERIA
want self- organisation
personal history
GARDEN INITIATORS
garden
CONFLICT
Cost: €500 per month 80 sqm 4 bedrooms
FRANCE
immigration, 1950s
MAISANNE
HLM
RAIMOND statute
friend of Halima’s is an artist like her
civil war in Algeria
51 years old has 2 daughters works in the area
want to be organised and want a statute legal definition
key actors
60 USERS OF THE SPACE including middle class, working class & retired
wants more cultural integration than food production
manage
planted in the garden without permission
current flat 1983 Paris
house with a garden is too expensive to afford therefore a community garden is the only way for Raimond to have access to a garden.
ounters
community garden
a place
aims & objectives
OR
FIELD TRIP VISIT Meeting with Halima flyers
CONVERSATION MAPPING - Halima
CITY HALL
a sp ace for e nc
roduction for food p
garden
owns land
community garden
meeting space
external actors
not visited garden yet
encourage integration
the only barrier for this development
MIDDLE CLASS
wants the land from them
WORKING CLASS
presentations and flyers to encourage people to participate
neighbours don’t talk to each other
current situation
social
bring people together
- potential exchange systems and alternative economies - giving back a sense of community
Patrick Chaimovitch - Colombes Deputy Mayor
The Dep. Mayor is from the green party; he sees the ecology as an important issue. Others who are not from this party have priorities in other domains.
Conversations
DEPUTY MAYOR
immigration
ing d n fu
industry
fo
?
economic crisis
Conversation 17/11/09
ial c o rs
Should we allow population to gr ow or stabilise it?
singhools u o h d sc an
It would mean investing in housing and schools
communist mayor
?
using Many of the ho s have em support syst e the nc si disappeared HLM were built
NGO organisatio ns work with the im migrant community. Mosaic magazin e celebrates cultu ral diversity in Colo mbes.
We want to establish community managed gardens, supported by the city hall.
?
How can we densify private housing to attract more commuters?
Eco-quatier car share scheme and shared gardens.
?
tegrate How can we in s of new inhabitant with er ti ar the eco-qu existing community?
?
r If we achieve ou ng ci target for redu n we ca car use, what es? do with car spac
New legislation enforces new builds to install insulation above the national minimum
Sebastian Eymard - Patrick Bouchain Architects
This mapping portrays Patrick Bouchain’s approach when embarking on a project with a specially developed focus of High Human Quality; where the human aspect is considered during the design and construction process. A few examples are explored in detail, including a housing project in Tourcoing which enabled existing and new inhabitants to become involved in the design and construction of their homes; subsequently avoiding the homogenous buildings often associated with social housing.
Conversations
learnt skill used on many houses
cultural/social centre
ing us ho
global effects
APPROACH
only include what is necessary
leave out: false ceiling, double walls, materials hiding pipes
m o
du ivi ind
DESIGN
economics and cultural exchange
si de
d gne personalise housing
EXHIBITION:
onsite model decision-making
ality prevents ho
ns
new inhabitants
ividually mo de lle d
exhibitio
- personal e xpre ssi on ...e ac i a c l o h s o h s u u s ing no e g
d is in
ow s
[HHQ]
...FOCUS...
sustainability
building finished/changed/ adapted by users
d an
former power station
gs
sh
build - site
individual learns a skill
people’s comments help
HISTORY
u se ho
by helping with self build it reduces the price for inhabitants
HIGH HUMAN QUALITY
CONSTRUCTION
tin
ee
m
human aspects
s
skills taught by professionals
self-build
global award for sustainability
er
to create individual houses
collected words from people
k or rw fo
cladding
people make a connection by finding their words
worked with artists
1% of project cost given to artist [in France]
assistant /advisor to Ministry of Culture cultural buildings
transform industrial and cultural places
also in the UK
sustainability standard:
HIGH ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
LE LIEU UNIQUE Loire-Atlantique, 2000
blog:www.legrandensemble.com
on site discussions enable integration
EXISTING
FUNDING transition zone between old and new
vation o reno f ex ist i
ition/integrat trans ion aid
public
NEW
real estate co. (supported by City Hall)
o dt se low y u ces e n ri mo ep p ke
private
L’ECOLE FORAINE Ile-et-Vilaine, 2007
corridors
classrooms
LE DRAGON VOLANT Val-de Marne, 2004 unnecessary space
energy management
alter building
parking lot
adapt to changing needs
individual double collective
enable community to use the building
[polluted land]
building suspended on top
plastic containers sent to Africa recyc [waste]
le
catalyst to suburb
renovate
to ng
SCHOOL:
rent/buy in stages [aim: for all to become owners]
choice of different extensions
ceiling made of plastic containers
slave trade history CIRCUS SCHOOL:
pric e fina s tailo re ncia l sit d to uat ion
site: former port city
SOCIAL HOUSING:
PROJECTS
HOUSING MIX
costly to clean poluted land
original inhabitants
.....................................and later self-management
ENSEMBLE A TOURCOING Tourcoing, 2009
plastic containers [artwork]
Julien Beller - EXYZT
The EXYZT collective was formed in Paris in 2002 on one simple idea: building and living together. It consists of Nicolas Henninger, Phllippe Rizzotti, Francois Wunschel, Pier Schneider and Gil Burban, all graduates from the Paris La Villette School of Architecture, who joined together after first common intervention: the architecture of the Rab. The group proposes to make the user (again) the centre of the design process and focuses on diversity rather than uniformity. EXYZT wants the project to be the expression of all the people who build it and live in it, with all their respective differences and individualities. EXYZT explores: #1 Research on experimental practices and situations #2 Elaboration of scenarios and strategies for collective building #3 The integration of interactive and flexible tools on urban and architectural production #4 A trans-disciplinary and multicultural platform of action and exchange.
tip
HOT SPOT: TOOL OF ANCHORING & DEVELOPMENT
ACTION E M THOD 03
build
work
ways
video
use
tools
together
time
temporary
students
struggle
story
space stock
small
site
show
satellite scaffolding sculptural
reuse
research
recycle
re-appropriation
public
projects
programmes
production
process
play pleasure
people
parties
paris
paid
offices
occupy
now
non-squatting
neighbourhood
music producers
music
money
meeting points
make materials
living
kitchen
inhabit intervention
important informal
idea group
holiday
graphic designers
garden
future exyzt
funding
flexibility free french
festival
experiments exyzt
empty ethos
disk-jockeys
discourse
disco
design
culture
cultural
common
collective
cafe
building
EXYZT//69//Rue D’Hauteville//75010 //Paris//Tel +33 (0) 1 4607 9004//fax +33 (0) 1 4770 4969//exyzt.collectif@gmail.com//Flickr Exyzt Folder//Tube Channel Exyzt YouTube
TEMPORARY INTERVENTION Architecture is an adventure in time. It should be short and dense so as to focus more on the project. In addition, it makes it possible to have time to multiply projects around the world.Uciam senihil vat,
STOCK...REUSE...RECYCLE For each project we try to gradually collect important materials like lights, porjectors, things for electricity connections, etc. Those are the kind of tools that we use to make our projects and because we gather it little by little, now we can make some projects that are very low budget. For this reason it is important to have flexibility in how we practice and what we produce.
ACTION METHOD 01
SITE DETECTION Choose sites that are not regulated by real estate economy or social control such as wasteland, leftover spaces, or abandoned spaces. Also accept exible/neutral spaces offered by events like festivals or exhibitions.
PARIS LA VILLETTE 2003
The rst architectural experimentation on urban reality by then newly formed collective group EXYZT. It contradicts ideas of designed & controlled public space and is a test that proves that everybody can bring informal urban spaces back into exchange in the city. These spaces, forgotten by urban planning, are the base of a democratic that allows freedom of expression and exchange.
L’ARCHITECTURE DU RAB
FULFILMENTS OF THE JOB The pleasure we have in our work is the point to what we do. For this we experiment with ways to get pleasure: I do my music, sports, pop culture activities, etc. As a group, we try to always provide fullment and that is why we have some musicians and a lot of parties. This is all partly because we don’t get paid – that is how we treat. ourselves.
If hotspot is the tool, Chaud Devant is the scenario - the transition to action, the construction of a collective event. That will support experimentation and participatory built.
POINT CHAUD The group explores territories and meet people who live and make the life of the village by developing a tool called hotspots, a fun tool. It is mobile, variable, exible, and hot oven and it will be hot spring. Hot Spot can allow businesses to be set up and ownership of the place to be established with activation and commitment. This tool initiates meeting places, offers activities to share a possible use: public bread oven, sauna, pizza oven, hot foot bath, stove, hot tub...
EXYZT is an association under the french 1901 legislation. The power of the collective group is the ability to work in autonomy. All members have their individual specialisations but they can all design, build and inhabit their projects, so that project teams can stay exible, but we do have individual specializations.
EXYZT collaborates with people around the world for a external stream of network, with the philosophy to involve as many participants as possible in a project.
EXYZT group are currently a community of talented people who act under the initial principle of sharing knowledge and abilities.
EXYZT was initiated through architects Nicolas Henninger, François Wunschel, Phillipe Rizzotti, Pier Schneider and Gilles Burba’s collective desire of building alternative architecture.
about t exyzt g he roup
EASA 2004, LILLE/ROUBAIX, FRANCE
450 Architectural students across Europe come together for the annual event of the EASA gathering. EXYZT organize the life of this temporary community in the enclosed space of some two warehouses. EXYZT and the EASA organisers hold a one-to-one scale construction game. The concept team built the main collective equipment [kitchen, washrooms, a hotel] in advance: it becomes a village auto-constructed and auto-managed by its inhabitants.
METROPOLITAIN:MICROPOLITAN
MATACITY/METAVILLE Two dozen architects, graphic designers & media artists collaborate with organiser of the French pavilion Patrick Bouchain Architects. A neoclassical building is outtted with bunk beds, a kitchen, bar, DJ stand, rooftop sauna, and sundeck.
VENICE BIENNALE 2006 [CITIES/ARCHITECTURE/SOCIETY]
big
bienial
artists
architecture
architects
always get
activating
The Dalston Mill project was a wind mill in an abondoned space which had a nice garden in the middle of Hackney, London. We built a windmill using scaffolding with the purpose of making flour on site. There was an oven to bake some bread after the flour was made. It shows the importance of the storey, what brings people together, what kind of programme is activating a space because it is not only the fact of doing a 'nice' form of the building but rather what can happen on the site.
grounds to explore Research on experimental practices and situations; Elaboration of scenarios and strategies for collective building. The integration of interactive and exible tools of urban and architectural production A trans-disciplinary and multicultural platform of actions and exchange.
Experiment endlessly with different tools for interventions such as videogames, short cuts, and vj. Translate media into physical space. A video projection can constitute a facade; a video game becomes a spatial interactive game. Films are the memories to our constructions.
ACTION 4 0 E M THOD EXPLORE NEW MEDIA TOOLS
RE-BIENNALE VENICE, ITALY
HOMEMADE HOMEMADE is a collective project that involves inhabitants of Venice, international experts and professionals to re-think the city, to re-vitalize it, and to re-appropriate it. It is aimed at re-using and redening the urban habitat of Venice. Since 2008, EXYZT has become part of Re-BIENNALE project in Venice. Re-BIENNALE is a permanent workshop of design and self-construction of social habitat. EXYZT works on the refurbishment of Morion and on the rst workshop of the recycling of the materials that came from the 53rd International Art Exhibition of the Biennale of Venice.
#01 #02 #03 #04
s etho
THE IDEA FOR PRACTICE IS SIMPLE - BUILDING = LIVING TOGETHER! Projects should be the expression of all the people who build and live in it, with all their respective differences and individualities; the user is the centre of the design process; diversity rather than uniformity.
ARE YOU BUILDING MOST OF YOUR PROJECTS YOURSELVES? It is really important for us to be involved in the construction and also to live together during the building time. Sometimes there are only two people working on a project and other times there are about thirty people on one project. We build and usually we live in it during the bulding process and sometimes after the process in order to activate the space. We try to find a horizontal hierachy on the building site. So that depends on the project and the importance of one skill to another.
WORK SPACE The first office space is used by a sub-group made up of a photographer, two architects and a graphic designer. the two floor spaces of the former bakery is a juxtaposition of activities; formed by the acts of the group rather than that predetermined by the plan of the building.
ti p
HOW TO SURVIVE WITH LIVING COST + Do projects in the holidays and spread the various projects across the year. + Organise different members to go out to take care of the various projects at different times. For example, work on different projects at EXYZT but also work with gypsy people, work on projects in Africa, and do some computer drawings to earn money.
are non reproducible products. They are designed and built in the context of location, place and participants.
ACTION THOD 02 IN-SITU ACTION ME Materials can be identical like scaffolding, textiles, photo, video and sound material, but the projects
VISUALS ARE IMPORTANT Gonzague Lacombe is a raphic designer. The important part of EXZYT is always making this kind of stuff (stickers, some clothes, some things on the wall...) They have importance in the projects because most of our projects are temporary so it is about telling a story and playing with visuals, and with fiction
HOW TO GET FUNDING Try locally – festivals groups, cultural centres and other associations. Projects can start dealing with low-budget schemes. Expect that sometimes there can be no funding and there can be struggles to complete projects.
tip
DALSTON MILL PROJECT Radical Nature Exhibition 2009, Barbican Art Gallery Transformation of a disused railway line and waste ground in Dalston into a vibrant rural retreat for the people of the area and beyond. The fully-functioning, 16 metre mill is accompanied by a 20 metre long wheat eld, a restaging of environmental artist Agnes Denes’ original 1982 pioneering piece.
In the beginning it was more the questions of activating space, and then some locals would have the ability to reapproapriate these spaces to eventually become something that belongs to them. When projects are temporary, we use the materials from it to build another one.
Innov ative Pract ices: Exyzt - Pari s Novem ber 20 . 09
Conversations
Mapping Immigration
This map shows the key issues that may affect the immigrant population in Colombes. Through general research into the history of the immigrant population in France, I’ve identified that the following areas may affect the immigrant population both now and in the future: employment, housing, race ethnicity + being working class, political terminology and health. I’ve written summary of each of issue and drawn connections with what we discovered from our interviews with Fatima, Halima + Maisane, and the Deputy Mayor.
Conversations