en sueurs . chroniques d'une vallée transpirante
Bernay Terres de Normandie (FR) - Winner
TEAM DATA
Associates: Julie Beauté (FR) – philosopher, Lena Cissé (FR) – landscape architect, Mathilde Lecomte (FR) – architect urbanist, Camille Pastier (FR), Pierre Bouilhol (FR) – architects
Contributors: Jules-Valentin Boucher (FR) – architect
ensueurs@gmail.com
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TEAM PORTRAIT
VIDEO (by the team)
INTERVIEW
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1. How do you define the main issue of your project in relation with the theme “Living Cities Imagining architecture taking care of the milieus”? And in which way do you think your project can contribute to an ecological and/or social evolution?
“en sueurs” takes as its thread the transversal and transcalar notion of sweat: sweating concerns human and non-human agents, on different scales of time and space. It enables us to address ecological and social issues in a non-naïve way, without hiding the dirty and troubled aspects of the living. Paying attention to scorching processes already there, our sweaty approach appeared to be affective, embodied, relational and political.
2. How did the issues of your design and the questions raised by the site mutation meet?
In Bernay, we had the feeling that the place was sweating a design and a method. We collected stories of sweat, wet tales, aqueous anecdotes from the valley bottom. By investigating what we came to call “the watershed,” we were able to define four layers of transpiration (aesthetic, productive, biotopic and connective). They led us, from the outside in, to our filthy architectural, urban and landscape answer: the wake.
PROJECT:
The singularity of the valley and the four sites called for an original proposal. However, we already shared a common sensitivity for environmental humanities, alternative cartographic practices and ecological design. Feminist philosophers also inspired us—notably Donna Haraway and her string figures, and Sara Ahmed and her sweaty concepts.
SITE:
“en sueurs” opens the way to fundamentally processual and collective paths, thanks to the wake. This path of soft mobility is an open and intempestive process, taking part in existing networks. It is shaped by familiar dialogical practices and careful negotiations, embodied in the “Filature des idées.” In this empiric and fabulist system of weaving elaboration, human and non-human actors entangle.
REFERENCES:
Heterogeneous encounters formed the team on the Europan 17 competition. Its main strength lies in its interdisciplinarity: we bring together skills in architecture, urban planning, landscape and philosophy. “en sueurs” is the hybrid and troubled result of the string figures made by our companion hands.
6. How could this prize help you in your professional career?
Europan has given us the chance to continue our dialogue with the actors from Bernay. These encounters have been both important and joyful: we are happy to continue them. Beyond “en sueurs,” we hope that this prize will give us the opportunity to learn from the Europan process and the impetus to launch our professional careers. We feel that this award will encourage hybrid works, mixing science with fiction and facts with stories.
TEAM IDENTITY
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Team name:
Average age of the associates: 31 years old
Has your team, together or separately, already conceived or implemented some projects and/or won any competition? if so, which ones?
We have no team projects to mention here.
