DIY workshop in the greenhouse 1/2
This Saturday, there was great commotion in and around the greenhouse.
At first we had to deal with the monumental harvest of fruits and vegetables from the Marcea and Asnières markets, made a few hours earlier by Fabrice, Adrian and Leo. At 13h, the time when the market closes, there is a lot of interesting waste for the garden: overripe fruit, unsold vegetable crates and cartons. The gardeners are bound to sort all this up: first the fruit still edible was set aside, so that everyone was able to take one. Some have recovered and dried seeds in anticipation of future planting. Finally, all that was damaged was divided between compost and vermicompost: worms in the worm farm were treated to a feast!
Then everyone got their hands in the dough to store the greenhouse. In fact, due to the approach of winter, it was about arranging this common store, so that everyone can make its seed and shelter when the weather is cold. Everyone has actively participated in the great Fall Cleaning: sorting, storage, washing furniture and weeding the soil. Thus, the greenhouse was completely emptied and refurbished: we built a large table and a micro-sowing seed bank. The development continues on Oct. 13, including storage shelves and a small warm seating area for this winter. Any idea is welcome!
Bicycle repair workshop
This week, we had a parade of bicycles in the garden. Within the Mechanical Sundays event offered by the association “Colombes à vélo”, bocycle tinkering specialists offered their services to anyone who wanted to learn how to repair his bike. In the garden, it was a pretty sight: the neighborhood kids with wrenches, gardeners repairing their bikes, a team of residents and AAA members who attempted a first test water pump driven by a pedal mechanism. Stay tuned … Thus, ten bikes were repaired, belonging to the neighborhood and elsewhere, who went away with a smile. In addition, in the shared garden, gardeners were busy weeding, composting, planting winter vegetables. In parallel, Yvon Pradier, from Nature Ecology, worked on the farm to prepare us a quality earthworm vermicompost. The school garden has also received an overhaul, necessary because it was temporarily crowded after the start of construction.
Restarting the Agrocité
Many things happened during this month of August!
Already initiated by the workshops at the beginning of the summer, the Michelet garden layout went into high gear with the start of construction in the street front. For now, this is still a wide gap, but in early 2013, three small buildings connected by a greenhouse will be ready to host activities related to urban agriculture and local culture.
Many transformations deserved a little explanation! This Saturday, so we met to discuss the second season of the Michelet garden. Sara began by presenting the project, its operation and the new steps to be adopted during the construction period. Indeed, it is necessary for the good of all gardeners as well as construction workers, to respect the limits of the construction site, defined by the red ribbon. We were able to maintain restricted access to the garden during the work, but it is provided that each meets this safety rule. It was also an opportunity to explain the functioning of toilets, set up a micro-economy from the Agrolab (crops are weighed, labeled, and sold at a low price to the people).
We ended the day with delicious potatoes cooked on the barbecue in the garden.
Zumtobel Prize 2012 for R-Urban
The self-managed architecture studio received the Zumtobel Foundation Award in the category “Research & Initiative” for the R-Urban project. This prize is awarded every two years for sustainable solutions in the fields of architecture and engineering that provide an innovative contribution to improving the quality of lives.
The Jury Prize awarded every two years is formed by specialists and international experts in the fields of architecture, art, engineering. This year they were: Ute Meta Bauer, Yung Ho Chang, Harald Sommerer, Stefan Behnisch, Kazuyo Sejima Kazuyo, Kunle Adeyemi, Brian Cody, Winy Maas.
Excerpt from the Jury:
“R-URBAN is a small but pioneering intervention in existing urban structures. In this project, the architects from AAA have developed different micro-tools with which to tackle the big social and ecological themes in an urban setting. For us, the three R-URBAN pilot projects have a pioneering character because they have proven robust, because they empower local people, and because they help revitalise a neglected urban context”.
http://www.zumtobel-group-award.com/en/
WICK SESSION / ECO COMUN – PICKING UP THE PIECES
‘Picking up the pieces‘ will bring together makers and cultural producers from the Hackney Wick area which explore issues around, recycling, reuse, and the collective production of public situations. The session alongside the academic exposition Between the A12 and Lea River, will feature projects and practitioners which draw from the physical, cultural and creative resources of Hackney Wick and its proximity to produce inventive solutions. Highlighting ways of working and thinking which encourage a hands on approach to making with results ranging from stools to temporary cultural spaces and everything in between. Speakers will give a short 5 minute introduction to their work followed by an open conversation.
Speakers include:
Bruce Ingram
Martino Gamper
Takeshi Hayatsu
Assemble
public works
The session is part of the exposition Between the A12 and Lea River organised by Colin Priest and will be hosted by the Wick Curiosity Shop
AAA + Eco-Nomadic School Workshop
Another week full of changes! Taking after the collective Etc. , the network Eco-Nomadic School has had its turn of work for the Michelet garden.
Eco-Nomadic School is a class project for nomadic and temporary mutual learning and teaching practices of eco-citizens in various parts of Europe. The network, formed by four European partners, meets regularly for workshops in different countries. So it was the turn of AAA to receive the nomadic school.
They found themselves for the week:
– 4 people from FCDL of Brezoi , Romania: this structure is a foundation that promotes local development in rural areas in the Carpathian mountains.
– 4 people Myvillages , Germany, England, the Netherlands: an international network of artists, which focuses on the rural as a space and cultural production.
– 4 people of Agency , Sheffield – United Kingdom: This research center affiliated with the University of Sheffield centers its work on education as a cultural practice.
Also present were, of course, members of the AAA team, organizer of the workshop. This group of people belonging to the European network, joined a dozen volunteers, eager to learn this week, exchange practices and knowledge. We thank them for their invaluable help throughout the week.
All these people come from different backgrounds, and have shared their knowledge and skills: about gardening, carpentry, crafts, earth moving, but also other even more amazing environmental practices. How, for example, keep food fresh on site that does not have a refrigerator? We have dug a hole using the cool soil to keep the costs. Some of us have taught carpentry techniques, while others have taught us to make soup with the “weed” from the garden.
The project took over the one of the Collective Etc and we have not built new facilities, but rather filled, detailed, and completed skeletons built the previous week. There were many small sites: building the inside of dry toilets; determine the solid portions and open portions of structures, then do the cladding; strike the ground and make a ramp of drying planks for the conviviality space; do the roof of the two facilities taking into account the recovery of rainwater, build sunshades to shade on the terrace. Many small sites that allowed the completion of the modules initiated a week before.
But there was also a major initiative, a sort of thread of the week: storage site in anticipation of the construction site of the building facing the street that will begin this summer. The collected materials were sorted, prepared, then stored in the storage space at the end of the plot. The large garden plots were weeded and work has been started on the front slope.
The work of two weeks has transformed the shape of the site, and we are very happy to see the Agrocité gradually emerge on what was still a wasteland a year ago.
Eco-Commun #05 Terre de Liens and Collectif Etc,
This Saturday, June 30th, the Eco-Commun # 05 was held . On this occasion, we received the association Terre de Liens. Blaise, from Terre de Liens Ile de France , came to present the work they undertake to achieve the salvation of the farmland. To stem this loss, they act to install and maintain agricultural officials. The issue is particularly crucial in our region, where land pressure on agricultural land is very high. There are currently three farms installed by Terre de Liens in Ile de France, including an incubator, which allows young farmers to learn, and test the business a year before embarking on a personal exploitation. To make this possible, at the heart of Terre de Liens actions lies the idea to develop social finance tools for use by all persons who wish to leave the succession of property of rural land market and speculative mechanisms and facilitate access to land for the project leaders in rural areas. Reflecting on these tools, in collaboration with La Nef , it is currently partially carried out, with a land already created, the project for a foundation. Terre de Liens participates in recreating a collective and individual responsibility for the preservation of the common good that represents the earth.
This presentation was also very important for the Michelet garden, because Terre de Liens helps us in our leader research project for the Agrolab – the professional part of the garden, with its large vegetable plots. We know we can count on their experience and we refer to farms already operating in the IDF: The Sands of Lumigny , and the incubator of Toussacq, the Champ des possibles.
The collective Etc, present this whole week for a workshop, discussed about their Detour de France : since October 2011, the Collective Etc. left on the roads of France, cycling and for one year was meeting and working with the various actors involved in the citizen manufacturing of the city.
It is within this context that they came to the Michelet garden, both to take part in the Agrocité project, but also to observe the practice of aaa in the establishment of the R-Urban project.
We also took this opportunity to inaugurate the construction of facilities in the garden, the fruit of a week’s work. A very pleasant afternoon, where residents have discovered the equipment that has emerged in so little time on the garden, and we ended with a delicious bread baking in the oven loaned by the gardeners of the Wild Gardens of Audra .
Thanks to all!
AAA + Collectif Etc., Workshop
The last week of June has seen many changes in the Michelet garden.
During the Detour de France , the collective Etc. has halted for a week in Colombes, responding to our invitation to invest the scene. We welcomed them with great pleasure, and we are worked together in the design and construction of part of the outdoor garden.
All week, the site was open to the public, and we thank all those who came to lend a hand.
As for the materials for the workshop, we focused on reuse, so we had three main available:
– Drying boards: they are very thick wooden planks that serve to dry the cement bricks to dry. When they are worn out for this use, manufacturers get rid of it: we recovered 300 for the Agrocité .
– Bin boards: these are the planks that made up the crates containing the paving of street construction site of the station of Colombes. We went to retrieve them on site. The boards have required substantial preparation (dismantling the structure, remove the nails) but we now have stock available for siding, roofing, etc..
– Rafters: purchased locally (at the port of Gennevilliers), these long length allowed us to make adjustments to all the structures.
During the week, the collective Etc has focussed on two developments:
– A covered terrace overlooking the shared garden: this friendly space can accommodate several activities according to the desires of users: a bread oven, a large dining table, benches, hammocks. The structure built by the collective Etc. offers many opportunities for both manufacturers ownership succession to them (in terms of cladding, partitioning, roofing) and for users themselves who can throw many practices.
– A more technical area, located at the end of the plot. It was designed on the same principle as the terrace, like a platform made of drying planks and a framing to be further completed. This small set is deployed from the outhouse in the garden.
The principle of dry toilets is very simple: instead of using water, it is “flushed” by throwing one or two ladles of sawdust. The waste is collected in a tray under the platform. This tray will contain a load of worms that will attend to compost waste. This prevents odors and, when removing the tray from underneath (about every 6 months), it is converted into vermicompost.
Logically, the outhouse is built with the compost area. A compost bin has long been built in consultation with Yvon, master composter-invested in the R-Urban project, who will install here a small worm farm. Green waste from the garden will be routed so that the space is used to feed the earthworms, which, in this way, will create the compost. This arrangement ends with a small platform to be completed in the future: shelter, storage, tool shed …
Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes
For this Eco-Commun # 04, we received Katrin Bohn . She is a researcher and architect working particularly on the notion of urban agriculture, and also head of the Department of City and Energy of the Urban Institute in Berlin (ILAUP ). She came to the garden Michelet explain the concept of CPULs, (Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes), she has developed with Andre Viljoen. The open spaces are CPULs throughout cities, through the built environment seamlessly, thereby connecting all forms of existing green spaces in city centers, and making the link with the surrounding rural areas. The CPULs can be open green spaces and can possess an economical, social and environmental productivity.
The CPULs do not exist yet. However, many forms of urban agriculture already exist, just like what we have developed together in the Michelet garden: urban farms, market gardens, vegetable gardens, shared gardens etc..Such structures are, so far, isolated components of future CPULs that could be connected to a regional network of green spaces more widely available, giving them more urban coherence.
Thank you Katrin and thank you to everyone who came to listen!
