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Design by: Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée (AAA)

Category:

An urban garden blossoms in Paris’ St. Blaise neighborhood, bringing community together in cooperation with professionals and the local government. City walls in the dense urban area become an opportunity for growth and a new environmental awareness.


^{Le 56/Eco-interstice by Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée (AAA)}

Context
Atelier d’architecture autogérée (aaa), or the ‘Studio for Self-Managed Architecture’, is a collective platform that conducts explorations, actions and research concerning urban mutations and emerging practices in the contemporary city. ‘Urban tactics’ are employed by aaa to encourage the participation of inhabitants in the selfmanagement of disused urban spaces, to overpower prejudices and stereotypes by proposing nomad and reversible projects, and to initiate interstitial practices that explore the potential of the city – in terms of population, mobility and temporality. The area of the city that this particular project took place in is very dense, and the passageway in which the project was completed was previously abandoned and considered unalterable.

Mission
It is through micro-political actions that the aaa collective hopes to proactively participate in making the city more ecological and more democratic, and to make urban spaces less dependent on top-down processes and more accessible to daily users. ‘Self-managed architecture’ is an architecture of relationships, processes and personal agencies, as well as desires and skills. Such architecture does not correspond to a liberal practice but asks for new forms of association and collaboration, based on exchange and reciprocity and involving all those interested (individuals, organizations, institutions), whatever the scale.


^{Le 56/Eco-interstice by Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée (AAA)}

The particular project ‘Le 56/Eco-interstice’ explores the possibilities for an urban interstice to be transformed into a collectively self-managed space. Initiated in 2006 in the Saint-Blaise area in the east of Paris, the project engaged an unusual partnership between local governmental structures, local organizations, inhabitants of the area and a professional association that runs training programmes in eco-construction. The management of the project gave space and time for construction, hoping for the construction site itself to become a social and cultural place of action.

Realization
Initially occupied by mobile devices and temporary installations, the plan evolved little by little into a collectively managed space. The open building site hosted different events, allowing participants to meet each other and to participate in the decision-making process during construction. The plot was designed as an ecological interstice, hosting a greenhouse with green roof and powered by solar panels. It includes compost toilets, a rainwater collector, cultivation plots, a compost laboratory, seed catchers and a wild bird corridor. User participation takes on different scales of proximity, relying on neighbourhood networks, friendships and individual skills. The façade of the front building is designed to unfold and open up, to create a porous area at the ground fl oor level between the plot and public space, allowing the collective garden to invade the street. The structure allows for a multiplicity of communal activities to coexist in both an indoor and outdoor realm.


^{Le 56/Eco-interstice by Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée (AAA)}

Parallel to the construction of the physical space, different social and cultural networks and relationships between the users and actors involved are continually emerging. The project has an important take on the notion of proximity and active borders. Neighbourhood walls transform the boundaries of the site into interactive devices, which – rather than separating – multiply possibilities for exchange and connection. Another strong aspect of the project is the ecological side; it focuses on energetic autonomy, recycling, leaving a minimal ecological footprint. Community members come together to create a sustainable environmental oasis in the midst of a dense urban setting.

Location
Paris, France

More information
www.urbantactics.org

_{^{Text by Elvia Pyburn-Wilk. Read the full story in the book TESTIFY! The consequences of architecture, edited by Lukas Feireiss. This publication coincides with the international travelling exhibition TESTIFY! The consequences of architecture by the Netherlands Architecture Institute.}}

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