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- GPS X : 2.336944341659546000
- GPS Y : 49.893182966187230000
- Implementation start : 2013
- Implementation end : 2013
- Context : In 2010, the Maison de la Culture of Amiens initiated a festival of
landscape creations and visual artworks installations in situ in the
hortillonages of Amiens. This new experience allowed it to add in situ
creation activity to its production activity, and to acquire technical
skills in terms of territory analysis, natural spaces (fauna, flora)
protection rules, but also in terms of social cohesion by involving the
population of the hortillonages into the development of its activities.
The Maison de la Culture was also in charge for the first time of a
social and professional integration project aiming at the acquisition by
the beneficiaries of technical competences related to gardening and
performing arts. The project also enabled the Maison de la Culture to
become part of new networks: artistic and professional ones (landscape,
architecture and design schools, meeting of professional local, national
and international landscapists, architects and visual artists,
specialized press), logistical ones (equipment, road, rail and
waterways, green spaces and water commissions of Amiens), social ones
(mission locales – helping young people finding training courses or
jobs, town policy departments at the level of the prefecture, officials
in the European Social Fund). - Website : http://www.artvillespaysage.com/socialinclusionproject_gallery_details.php?id=98
- Project Status : Completed Project
- Client : Maison de la Culture d'Amiens
- Ownership : Public
- Accessibility : Unrestricted areas
- Project Team : Sarah Foque, Oli Kiddle, Jan Roth, Mark Whillans, Michael Onsia & Francis Parmentier
- Brief Description : This
project came about in response
to the competition brief for the 2013 Hortillonnages Art, Ville et Paysage
Garden Festival in Amiens, France. Through this festival, the Maison de la Culture de Amiens aims to re-define the
Hortillonnages. The Hortillonnages comprises
a series of man-made islands situated within the flooding area of the
Somme. These islands were originally created for the production of food, but
due to the evolution of agriculture in the last century they have fallen into
disrepair. Through the Art, Ville et Paysage project the MCA aims to engage
young artists and designers to come up with new sustainable uses for these
islands and assist in their conservation.
My submission, Floating Delights, responded to the brief on 3 levels. Firstly
it aimed to protect the island against erosion by using native planting. The
native planting areas will reinforce the banks of the island with their roots
and provide a habitat for the local wildlife.
Secondly, active local community engagement was
encouraged through the process of building the garden in order to help
progress the conservation of the Hortillonnages: the key building material, plastic bottles,has been collected
from the local community. It also
facilitated the promotion of the Hortillonnages, as collection points were
dotted around Amiens.
Lastly, this project devised a new type
of agriculture more attuned to its environment and made use of waste as
a building material. The garden consists of a pond with floating planters within
it: these planters gain their buoyancy from the plastic bottles collected from
the local community. They are planted with edible aquatic and marshland plants
that draw their nutrients from the water, simultaneously providing food while
also purifying the water. The planters can be reeled in through a pulley system
so the plants can be harvested.
The garden festival runs from the 15th of June till the 13th of October 2013. - Designer : Sarah Foque
- Location : France, Camon, lat : 49.893182966187230000 - lng : 2.336944341659546000 address : 37 Rue Roger Allou, 80450 Camon, France
- Project Name : Original : Floating Delights
- Type : Gardenshows
