In Bordeaux, as in most other cities, its heterogeneous suburb is not or badly known by most people. In these urban fringes, urbanization generates spaces without uses. A strange mixture arises: urban network, industrial zones, small housing estates, leftover natural spaces and industrial wasteland recaptured by nature.
The places we mostly know are shopping centers, the big roads leading to it, small housing estates where we might live. But as there is no urban life and the places are not though for pedestrians we naturally use the car or public transportations to enter these areas. Inhabitants generally have a quite bad opinion of this places and politicians have tendency to hide them.
Once on site, these spaces seem to live their own story, ignored by the surrounding urban life. In these zones between city and nature we see a secret neglected city. In spite of a general bad opinion and a tendency to hide those spaces, we think on the contrary that their potential should be revealed, that we should accept them as an extension of the city and see it as an urban enrichment. It is actually a chance to have a series of more or less natural spaces within touching distance of the town centre. We would like to question the capacity of those budding leftover spaces.
The artwork Les Refuges Périurbains is a performative scenography of the suburban territory of Bordeaux which aims to offer a previously unseen public use of it. It consist of three complementary part, which are indivisible:
1) A repertory of suburban characteristic places to reveal and to link in a network.
2) A collection of artwork Shelters, seated up in those emblematic suburban places.
3) A series of actions on suburban itinerancy proposing a performative and collective use of the shelters.
We made in 2001 a first project about a hiking path around Bordeaux. The first shelter, “Le Nuage” was built for the biennial “Panorama” in 2010. By now there are 6 Refuges Périurbains in different parcs around Bordeaux and new ones will be created in the years to come.
The CUB (Urban Community of Bordeaux) is financing the project. While the project series has been initiated by Bruit du Frigo, the construction is made by Zebra3 / Buy-Sellf and different artists or design teams were in charge of designing the objects.
Les Refuges Périurbains are the visible part of a broader project. The idea is to promote urban hiking as a local open air activity which is accessible to anyone by offering free nights in the shelters.
Every shelter can host up to 9 persons in about 15m2 and has an unique shape. As in mountain refuges it is quite simple: there is no electricity and no water access, only beds and a common space.
By now most people use the Refuges Périurbain mainly for spending a special night with the family or friends. During the whole summer the shelters are occupied. Once or twice a year we organize two days of collective suburban hiking with up to 80 persons leading through an improbable succession of zones and camping in (for the lucky ones) or around one of the refuges. Whereas the organized hiking sessions encounter success, up to now only a few people take the initiative by themselves.
Like natural spaces, urban metropolis offer a diversity of landscapes and territories that are favorable for adventure and exploration. They can be seen as hiking land. Today, urban hiking and a new form of peri-urban tourism are really arising. This is changing our perception of those territories and augurs the development of wider and richer uses of the suburbs by its inhabitants. The outskirts of Bordeaux have this potential of breaking with everyday life, offering exoticism and unfamiliar feelings right next door, the whole required ingredients for a perfect hiking experience.
5 to 6 days are needed to complete the urban hiking loop.
Les Refuges Périurbains (the suburban shelters) are a new public equipment for a new urban use. In order to embody and encourage urban hiking, and more broadly speaking, promote the (re)discovery of the territory, we designed, built and installed a series of refuges around the urban area of Bordeaux.
Refuges for hikers as in the mountains.
Refuges for those that would like to experience an unusual retreat in the middle of the city.
Refuges for visitors that are looking for an alternative accommodation.
Refuges with desirable shapes, all unique, between art and architecture, offers an unforgettable spatial and poetic experience.
Le Tronc Creux
2013 in Pessac (33)
Design: Bruit du Frigo / Yvan Detraz
Construction: Zebra3 / Buy-sellf
Financed by CUB (Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux)
Le Tronc Creux is part of a series of shelters spread out around Bordeaux. The original idea came up with the project of making a hiking path surrounding the city, connecting waste land, parks and forests. It offers local inhabitants to make a short holiday for free in their own neighborhood while exploring unknown areas next door.
In the winding inside of the trunk, 9 people can sleep comfortably.
As in mountain refuges, there is no light and no water, just friends and family in this unexpected surrounding right next to home!
The outside shape is a mix between a trunk – a natural refuge for animals – and a mechanical piece of a trash compactor – reminding the past of this area. The small windows and the wooden interior create a warm and cozy atmosphere while the studded outside seems to roll away at any moment.
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