Floran Martineau
Marie Gilliard
"A sheltering roof" come from the collaboration of two young architects for whom Architecture is firstly a collective work at the ser vice of people who live in it.
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Coming from the National Architecture School of Toulouse, they based on their architectural conviction forged through several professional experiences, journeys, workshops, trainings, internships, etc.
The collective is a philosophy of work important according to me, at the heart of the design team, with the users, and more widely as a pursuit of a social ideal.
During our architecture studies, we frequently collaborate with others students. The sharing of knowledges, the ability to debate, are necessary to make the collective work productive and enriching. My experiences also led me to work with the studio OECO Architects in Toulouse. OECO, as “OEuvre COllective”, which means Collective Work. The working method developed by the associates aims to encourage debates during a project, to interrogate some choices, not only between associates, but also with others contributors, interns, engineers, users, artisans, etc. This professional experience taught me collaborative work as a conception tool to improve a project.
So design for customers and a community is a point which left a mark during my studies and work experiences. The latter taught me to discuss with the contractor in order to understand his questions, and so to be able to answer it the most intelligently as possible. Otherwise, during two singular experiences, one in Vietnam, and another in India, I was lead to study and understand social models, but also environment which were really different from mine. These latter point are tightly tied. The context of a project, such as climate or local building materials, is primordial, because they influence the comfort of users, so their everyday life and their traditions. To understand a foreign culture is also observe its environment, in order to be able to interpret the demand and adapt it to an architectural thought.
The project proposed by Nka Foundation, and especially the workshop which succeed it, are, according to me, integral part of this process. Over a first phase, it will be question to immerse ourselves in the community, with the aim of understanding its history, its environment, and so its everyday life, as well as its needs. We should not try to impose our social model, and our occidental habits, but rather open towards this new culture and propose a project adapted to its users, as its environmental context. Of course, we cannot succeed this exercise without being guided, knowledge isn’t enough. This is by discussion and collaboration with local persons that the project should be realise, in order to adapt our concept to the real needs of the community. Thus, this workshop is a singular opportunity to learn and share knowledge, skills and cultures, with the local community, professionals, but also with people from all over the world.
Earth as a building material is, in my opinion, the symbol of an adapted architecture that respects the environment.
During my first year of Bachelor at the National School of Architecture of Clermont Ferrand in France, I analysed the mud house built by Hassan Fathy in Egypt. It was for me a striking discovery. By bringing the ancestral technique of Nubian vault up to date through a contemporary architectural writing, he involved the native population in his projects, and in this way, helped to preserve a local heritage.
In first year of Master, I went to study a year in Peru. During this academic year, I have participated at an eco-volunteering mission in Ecuador. It was the opportunity to focus my research around raw-earth, which is the subject of my master’s thesis in EVAN Master (“Entre Ville, Architecture et Nature”, which means “Between Cities, Architecture and Nature”). This thesis sought to question the way to enhance the culture of population through Architecture. The community studied is Afro-Ecuadorian, descendent of African slaves, and lives today in the North of Andes Mountains. The analyse of the culture and traditions, both social and constructive, of this community was the main approach of my researches.
For my last year of university, I have chosen to integrate the Heritage Master in Toulouse. Native of this city, I was curious to know its history, and to learn about the local bricks,with which is built the old town. My final project concerned the renovation of La Grave Hospital, dating from the XIIth century.
In a society which equalises the different way of life, and makes disappear singularities of each culture, it seems important to me to learn lessons from our ancestors to improve the construction of our world. Raw-earth is probably the oldest building material of our civilisations, it represents large and priceless knowledge and traditional values. The Nka Project is the opportunity to put raw-earth at the centre of debates and interrogations. By developing a deep reflexion about this material, I wish to participate to the protection of environment and local traditions, which becomes step by step an international movement.
