Symbiosis : an evolving farm

Exploring architectural mediation, Symbiosis offers an architectural coherence between public activities, permaculture and housing, giving a new daily dynamic. Ecology and circular economy are central in the creation of the project. The aim of the mandating association is to experiment new ways of living in a local area without environmental impact

Symbiosis is more than a regular project: it is the culmination of the shared involvement of actors from different disciplines. As climate change progresses, I was interested in addressing environmental impact, using the interaction between the project's architecture and stakeholders. Different activities are complementary, and the project includes ecology, self-building, and landscaping. To fulfil an architectural, urban and landscape coherence, the actors’ role is the pillar of the project, ensuring its feasibility. Workshops—like co-programming through different phases, raising environmental awareness and co-building—were organized with inhabitants, students, associations and governing bodies, in order to develop the project. After defining priorities thanks to co-programming, we decided to schedule three phases, each including architectural, urban and landscape interventions and activities. All activities are connected through landscaping, taking into account mutualisation and reemployment of resources. An aim of the project is a self-sufficient community. With permaculture farmers, we determined vegetal-species combinations, and defined areas according to their needs. The whole project is based on circular economy principles, with a special connection to the village: shared resources, a communal waste management and collecting and reusing materials. There are three main architectural interventions: The old building was rehabilitated with light, effective interventions allowing for a future investment. A stable for hitching activity was created by reusing an existing metallic structure. Finally, a house applying mutualisation and ecological principles was proposed. Each intervention used bespoke compressed earth blocks, insolation with landscaping and passive systems, and water recycling. This collective work tries to address timely issues. Currently, Symbioses continues to experiment, creating a new landscape and embedding itself into a dynamized local context.