Collioure, Reconquering the Territory.

Identity centralizes; it requires an essence, a point. Without a center, no periphery; a disguised way of emphasizing that the center is first and everything else is second. But, the center is too small to fulfill its obligations, little by little it disintegrates, an overripe mirage in the process of implosion.

The cause and the consequence are similar: Collioure is only visited today for its historic center. However, the city was formed and defined by its enlarged territory. In this way, the project would help reclaim a forgotten land. It would help us question how to reactivate the city’s interest for its territory; but also vice versa, on how to reactivate the territory’s interest for its city. The project corresponds to the establishment of a trail seeking to connect the essence of the territory and its landscape. Sometimes inherent, sometimes created, this revealed essence would facilitate a greater knowledge of the territory enabled by the possibility of surveying it. Here, this notion of landscape has particular value as a place of relationships where all the localities are understandable only by reference to a wider system. This system is then integrated into a wider whole through the principle of the hiking trail. So, the project would be defined by three types of intervention corresponding to the nature of their construction over time. First, the rehabilitation of the Pla de las Forques would transform two forts whose future has not yet been decided. Their location at the entrance of the city marks the departure of the trail through the territory. Second, the « intermediate » project corresponds to the path itself. Most of the paths portions already exist due to the plurality of monuments on site. Finally, the « long » project is the rehabilitation and extension of Fort Dugommier as a landmark visible from all over the territory. In addition, the programs mix specific situations responding to the need for touristic facilities while projecting visitors into what Collioure represents; that is to say more than a city, a rich territory. The intervention on Collioure embodies a desire to reconquer the essence of a forgotten territory.