Living Stories
Brise vent, Le Havre, France, 2024
Transformation d’un lieu industriel en musée et espace public où culture, loisirs, nature et promenades se côtoient
Concours pour Terraviva
Recto-Verso
The project presses on the idea of a dual site, a dual atmosphere on each side of the concrete sail. The park on the south side is an open expanse where scattered areas of life invite people to gather around, in between wandering through the landscape where the wildlife thrives. It celebrates the roughness and poetic charm of the Brise-Vent ruins. On the other side, a bustling cultural hub inhabits the megastructure, bringing colour, light and life back to the facade.
Recycled Landscape
The landscape is designed organically around a toolbox of objects and interventions. The new vegetation punches through the concrete ground to reclaim the land, while the urban furniture is made progressively from materials found on site during the clearing-out of the Brise-Vent. The sail becomes a canvas for street art murals, creating an ever-changing facade around the letters spelling “Le Havre”.
Progressive Re-use
The reappropriation needs to be progressive and is meant to grow with time. The simple architectural intervention protects large open spaces, sheltered in between the concrete structure, and the three layers of the facade. The metal lattice, polycarbonate and coloured curtains play around boundaries and thresholds in a movable and adaptable system. The site evolves through the seasons, adapting through the weather conditions, growing and contracting the appropriated spaces depending on the needs.
– Decontamination and beginning of the revegetation of the site
– Installation of guinguettes around the sail
– Reappropriation of the site for occasional events
– Installation of the polycarbonate facade in the structure
– First murals on the sail
– Construction of the pools, diving boards and waterslide
– Temporary occupation of the premises by associations
– Installation of the artist and craftworkers workshops
– Plantings on the south side
– Regular events in the empty structure
– Installation of the metal lattice
– Official inauguration
– Opening of the auditorium and the first exhibition space
– Opening of the café
– Construction of the paved outdoor spaces on the north side
– Opening of the additional exhibition spaces
– Opening of the official offices and storage spaces
– Finalisation of the landscape and urban constructions
– Opening of the multipurpose hall to the public
Une voile en béton,
Poncée par la brise marine.
Un socle flottant, une étendue, le môle.
Et l’odeur des graffeurs et des bombes
S’envole,
Laissant lisibles ces lettres ancrées :
L E H A V R E
Chacun vient donner son histoire,
Les habitants d’hier, ceux d’aujourd’hui et de demain
Dialoguent et écrivent le récit du lieu et de sa ville,
L’histoire dont ce lieu se fait phare,
Annonçant l’avenir.
Viendras tu plonger au cœur de ce bras tendu ?