A collaborative and immersive investigation into the maintenance sites of Greater Paris and the expertise of the people who keep our cities running.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
While the public and shared spaces of Greater Paris are under heavy strain and undergoing rapid transformation, the facilities where they are maintained remain largely unknown and invisible. The proposed approach seeks to bring them back to the forefront of our attention, beginning with a study of these unique facilities: municipal technical centers, supply centers, municipal greenhouses, regional road maintenance divisions…
This investigation aims to open the door to this typically closed-off and invisible world, to reveal the unique spatial characteristics of maintenance, its resources, and the expertise of those who carry out daily upkeep. It will seek to serve as a collective revelation of our attachment to the material things we rely on every day—things that endure, in the face of inevitable wear and tear, through the caring gestures and discreet manual skills of maintenance workers.
The approach is immersive and weaves an open field of research that articulates different scales and media of representation. To explore these territories is to enter *terra technica*: enclosed spaces, often tucked away in the uninhabitable interstices of Greater Paris, where yet the permanence of our public spaces and the conditions for living there collectively are at stake.
While the public and shared spaces of Greater Paris are under heavy strain and undergoing rapid transformation, the facilities where they are maintained remain largely unknown and invisible. The proposed approach seeks to bring them back to the forefront of our attention, beginning with a study of these unique facilities: municipal technical centers, supply centers, municipal greenhouses, regional road maintenance divisions…
This investigation aims to open the door to this typically closed-off and invisible world, to reveal the unique spatial characteristics of maintenance, its resources, and the expertise of those who carry out daily upkeep. It will seek to serve as a collective revelation of our attachment to the material things we rely on every day—things that endure, in the face of inevitable wear and tear, through the caring gestures and discreet manual skills of maintenance workers.
The approach is immersive and weaves an open field of research that articulates different scales and media of representation. To explore these territories is to enter *terra technica*: enclosed spaces, often tucked away in the uninhabitable interstices of Greater Paris, where yet the permanence of our public spaces and the conditions for living there collectively are at stake.
THE TEAM
At the intersection of disciplines and scales, the collective’s approach examines how to undertake projects in a world in crisis. Its areas of study seek to reframe our expertise within theoretical fields that transcend traditional boundaries, to ground our actions in fieldwork and research, and to examine how we represent reality in order to better describe and understand it. In our work, we place the ground, public space, and the material transformations of the landscape at the center of our concerns.
Maxime Jaume, an architect, urban planner, and educator, develops a drawing practice centered on the medium and the cartographic object.
Théo Larvoire, an architect, urban planner, and photographer, uses photography to explore the connections between inhabited spaces and shared practices.
Lucile Pujol, an architect, urban planner, and educator, collects and composes narratives through active observation that situates the scale of the body within the territory.
At the intersection of disciplines and scales, the collective’s approach examines how to undertake projects in a world in crisis. Its areas of study seek to reframe our expertise within theoretical fields that transcend traditional boundaries, to ground our actions in fieldwork and research, and to examine how we represent reality in order to better describe and understand it. In our work, we place the ground, public space, and the material transformations of the landscape at the center of our concerns.
Maxime Jaume, an architect, urban planner, and educator, develops a drawing practice centered on the medium and the cartographic object.
Théo Larvoire, an architect, urban planner, and photographer, uses photography to explore the connections between inhabited spaces and shared practices.
Lucile Pujol, an architect, urban planner, and educator, collects and composes narratives through active observation that situates the scale of the body within the territory.
