julienspictures: Cultural community garden in Bordeaux

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Cultural community garden in Bordeaux

Today let's go south, to Bordeaux.
And let's have a look on this piece of land surrounded by buildings located in the small residential area (rue Dupaty).
Nothing special at first sight!!! But the special thing is the process of creation of this garden as a cultural project. It was initiated by a local association, named “Bruit du Frigo” (it means the “noise from the fridge”), founded by architects and planners who help inhabitants to create projects in their neighbourhood. The action was to negotiate with the municipality to let this piece of land free of another private residential project to become a community neighbourhood, and it worked (which is not so common in

France

!)... I took this photo last December late in the afternoon so the "garden of your sister" is less active than in spring for instance where people gather to meet and participate in a lot of different activities (art, sport, music like for the opening day of the garden). So nothing special at first sight but an important public space day by day.

In other neighbourhoods, the association took part in actions to sensitize kids and teenagers to their living environment, especially in some popular areas like Belcier (info only in French).

They also created a utopian urban design workshop with inhabitants of two popular central neighbourhoods of Bordeaux: Saint-Michel and the Queyries area.

If you are in Bordeaux you can go to the "Passe Muraille", 30 rue Bouquiere, where you can meet and chat with members of the association.

Labels: Bordeaux, garden, inhabitants