L’escargot, la méduse et le bégonia

Team Point of View

The last report of the American Academy of Sciences, released in May 2019, calls out to public opinion concerning dramatics repercussions of a warming rate above 2°c. More pessimistic than the IPCC's conclusions of 2014, it expresses the hypothesis of a warming upper from 5°c leading a sea-level rise of more than two meters by 2100. Dryness, heatwave, lower river flows, an increase of green alga… – current events require us to carefully consider the conclusions of scientific researches. The project bases itself on the corpus of natural sciences to outline a methodology of action and answer the new climatic and ecologic situation. Pliny the Elder in his “Natural History” –updated by Buffon eighteen centuries later– delivers a valuable analysis framework in term of contemporary issues.

Jury Point of View

Starting with a cartographic image of the larger Charente estuary, the team investigates the relation between man, the environment (land, marine, and vegetation), natural phenomena (tides) and possible energy applications. At study-site scale, the project works with water and coordinates a decline in urbanisation. In existing and newly created natural and agricultural areas, environmentally friendly transportation routes are used to develop agro‐tourism. In the Arsenal sector, the reorganisation of public spaces at the old gates allowing better access to the historic city.