Roques > Atelier Faber, 2020

Roques is a landscape installation offering a contemplative stopover for visitors of the Hortillonnages. Between poetry and ecological positioning, the work remind to the walker the fragility of this environment, and more generally on the phenomena of artificialisation of soil and progressive reduction of agricultural land. Over the centuries and under the pressure of urban expansion, the area of ​​Hortillonnages has grown from several thousand hectares to 300 hectares today. The virtual disappearance of market gardening has led to the modification of the boundaries and structure of this territory. And if the Hortillonnages are today protected by the activity of associations acting for the safeguard of this exceptional site and the return of market gardening, between 60,000 and 80,000 hectares of agricultural land are artificialized in France each year, the equivalent of 20 m² of land per second. How, faced with the urgency of the ecological transition, make visitors of the Hortillonnages sensitive to this phenomenon ? Roques takes the form of a pavilion dedicated to the elements of the landscape : soil, water and sky.  It places the ground at the center of the spatial composition. The action on the material, the earth and the wood, is the starting point for the production of this highly qualified space. Acting on the senses of the public, Roques gives to rethink our relationship to the world and to nature: the interior surface of 20 m² corresponds to the surface of artificialized soil every second in France. Everyone can take the measure of the phenomenon in progress during their visit. The wooden board, commonly used to maintain the banks of the Hortillonnages, is the only element used for the installation. According to the traditional construction method of stacked wood, the boards are superimposed on each other, without glue, nails or screws to form the walls and the roof. The construction thus refers to the palisades of wood ubiquitous on the site. The box roof is open to the interior. It lets in light, wind and rain that can fall on the ground. The boundaries of the enclosure and the cover are no longer perceptible, bringing nature into the interior of space.