The study maps and catalogs recurring sanitation issues—1,412 “hot spots,” the term used to describe sites of illegal dumping in Paris. The analysis of these micro-spaces, cluttered with bulky waste across all of Paris’s arrondissements, highlights instances of misuse and offers a new perspective on public space.
PROJECT PRESENTATION
“Garbage collectors draw and map the city just as urban planners and architects do, conducting what is called ‘black spot mapping’. More formally known in France as ‘recurring irregularities in cleanliness’, these ‘black spots’ are are places where illegal littering is happening on a daily basis. These places have particular architectural properties: they are dead ends, recesses, interstices, salient angles, and other indeterminate ‘leftovers of land’. The experience of garbage collectors, who tirelessly roam the city, following the same streets day after day until they knows every nook and cranny by heart, allows us to understand the city from beneath. In other words, by following their approach, we end up perceiving all kinds of urban crevices and irregularities.
As part of the FAIRE call for projects, we wish to assemble a guide to these recurring anomalies by going to each of the spots that have previously been identified by the garbage collectors, and draw precise plans and elevations, then recording their stories and compiling their uses through the testimony of the garbage collectors, ultimately establishing a classification, a diagnosis of these spaces that are currently undetermined. ‘Crumbs of land’ will thus be revealed by this new mapping through the lens of waste and the eyes of those who roam the city on a daily basis.
In tandem with the preparation of the guide, our research will allow us to select a certain number of particularly remarkable micro-plots for which we will conduct a property search, though it seems that most of them belong to the City of Paris. The plots could be then sold off or concessioned in order to for microarchitectures that address direct needs of the neighbourhood in which they are located to be inserted.”
“Garbage collectors draw and map the city just as urban planners and architects do, conducting what is called ‘black spot mapping’. More formally known in France as ‘recurring irregularities in cleanliness’, these ‘black spots’ are are places where illegal littering is happening on a daily basis. These places have particular architectural properties: they are dead ends, recesses, interstices, salient angles, and other indeterminate ‘leftovers of land’. The experience of garbage collectors, who tirelessly roam the city, following the same streets day after day until they knows every nook and cranny by heart, allows us to understand the city from beneath. In other words, by following their approach, we end up perceiving all kinds of urban crevices and irregularities.
As part of the FAIRE call for projects, we wish to assemble a guide to these recurring anomalies by going to each of the spots that have previously been identified by the garbage collectors, and draw precise plans and elevations, then recording their stories and compiling their uses through the testimony of the garbage collectors, ultimately establishing a classification, a diagnosis of these spaces that are currently undetermined. ‘Crumbs of land’ will thus be revealed by this new mapping through the lens of waste and the eyes of those who roam the city on a daily basis.
In tandem with the preparation of the guide, our research will allow us to select a certain number of particularly remarkable micro-plots for which we will conduct a property search, though it seems that most of them belong to the City of Paris. The plots could be then sold off or concessioned in order to for microarchitectures that address direct needs of the neighbourhood in which they are located to be inserted.”
POINTS NOIRS - ANOMALIES RÉCURRENTES DE PROPRETÉ
Publication of study, march 2023
Graphic design : Noémie Santos, Antoine Lemarchand
32 € / 17,5 x 25 cm / 352 pages
In French only
PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
Publication of study, march 2023
Graphic design : Noémie Santos, Antoine Lemarchand
32 € / 17,5 x 25 cm / 352 pages
In French only
PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
Milena Charbit, Architect
An architect by training, Milena Charbit graduated from ENSAPLV in 2013 and from EHESS in 2018. She has worked at several architecture, urban planning, and project management firms and has been teaching at ENSAPLV and Val de Seine since 2016 and at ENSAV since 2018. She has curated several exhibitions (Îles de la Seine, Pavillon de l’Arsenal, 2016; Le Temps de l’Île, Mucem, 2019; BAP, restoration of Villa E-1027...) and is the author of several books and publications.
Her architectural practice encompasses a myriad of forms, ranging from teaching to project management, including the staging of plays and performances, writing books, reading texts, curating exhibitions, field research, interviews, drawing, research, publishing, lectures, debates, and workshops… A diverse range of forms—this list is by no means exhaustive—all sharing a common thread: architecture and the living world.
127af, architecture and design studio
Founded in 2020 by Deborah Feldman and Baptiste Potier, 127af is a Paris-based architecture firm with a particular focus on the broader concept of contemporary living, in dialogue with its place and time.
Their trans-scalar practice is the result of a constant back-and-forth between theoretical research and constructive investigations that examine both built form and materiality, as well as the programming and evolutionary potential of spaces and architectures.
Deborah Feldman is an architect, educator, and researcher. Her work focuses primarily on the evolution of contemporary living environments, in relation to the evolution of the city, society, and new technologies.
Baptiste Potier is trained as an architect and architectural historian. His interest in craftsmanship and construction techniques has led him to develop a design language that highlights materials and assemblies.
An architect by training, Milena Charbit graduated from ENSAPLV in 2013 and from EHESS in 2018. She has worked at several architecture, urban planning, and project management firms and has been teaching at ENSAPLV and Val de Seine since 2016 and at ENSAV since 2018. She has curated several exhibitions (Îles de la Seine, Pavillon de l’Arsenal, 2016; Le Temps de l’Île, Mucem, 2019; BAP, restoration of Villa E-1027...) and is the author of several books and publications.
Her architectural practice encompasses a myriad of forms, ranging from teaching to project management, including the staging of plays and performances, writing books, reading texts, curating exhibitions, field research, interviews, drawing, research, publishing, lectures, debates, and workshops… A diverse range of forms—this list is by no means exhaustive—all sharing a common thread: architecture and the living world.
127af, architecture and design studio
Founded in 2020 by Deborah Feldman and Baptiste Potier, 127af is a Paris-based architecture firm with a particular focus on the broader concept of contemporary living, in dialogue with its place and time.
Their trans-scalar practice is the result of a constant back-and-forth between theoretical research and constructive investigations that examine both built form and materiality, as well as the programming and evolutionary potential of spaces and architectures.
Deborah Feldman is an architect, educator, and researcher. Her work focuses primarily on the evolution of contemporary living environments, in relation to the evolution of the city, society, and new technologies.
Baptiste Potier is trained as an architect and architectural historian. His interest in craftsmanship and construction techniques has led him to develop a design language that highlights materials and assemblies.
with the support of
Olivier Charlec, sanitation worker in the 14th arrondissement
Rebekka Deubner, photographer
Thibault Delvallée, head of the Expertise and Strategy Department at the Directorate of Sanitation and Water
As well as all the sanitation workers, operations managers, technical support staff, and garbage collectors who agreed to more than 30 interviews.
Olivier Charlec, sanitation worker in the 14th arrondissement
Rebekka Deubner, photographer
Thibault Delvallée, head of the Expertise and Strategy Department at the Directorate of Sanitation and Water
As well as all the sanitation workers, operations managers, technical support staff, and garbage collectors who agreed to more than 30 interviews.
