R-Urban English

[April 2019]

R-Urban is proud to be one of the projects featured in the international exhibition « Critical Care – Architecture for a broken planet », currently taking place in Vienna. The exhibition will open on Thursday 25th of April and will run until September 2019. A book of the same name has also been published at the M.I.T. Press to showcase the 21 case studies on display.

Excerpt : “The exhibition ‘Critical Care’ is a call for a new approach, for careful architecture and urban planning. 21 current examples from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, The United States and Latin America prove that architecture and urban development must not be subject to the dictates of capital and the exploitation of resources and labour.”

[April 2019]

On Thursday 18th of April, R-Urban took part in the launch of the 2019 edition of the European Innovation in Politics Prize, organised by Europa Nova. Eachyear, a prize is awarded for eight categories: Quality of Life, Prosperity, Employment, Ecology, Civilisation, Democracy, Human Rights and Community. In 2017, R-Urban was the winner of the ecology category.

This year, we were able to present the R-Urban project in the company of the former Secretary of State for Digital, Axelle Lemaire, members of Parliament Bruno Bonnell and Paula Forteza, former winners of the 2017 and 2018 editions and project leaders from all over Europe. We are proud to see that the R-Urban strategy continues to be on the agenda of communities determined to make the environment a priority of their mandates.

[Decembre 2019]

The Agrocité welcomes you to celebrate the latest progress of the project ! Come and see our three recently adopted hens, drink tea around the new woodstove, enjoy the garden sitting on its new wall-bench and celebrate the “most resilient building” award won at the Lisbon 2018 conference !

A great moment of suspense Wednesday, August 1 during the ultimate test: the removal of the soil that held until then the vault of the bread and pizza oven! The month of participatory construction has proved itself: the dome of the oven is absolutely solid!

Construction of the pergola, retrospective! 100% re-used wood, elbow grease, some bean seeds that will provide shade under the pergola! We started with a lot of motivation and now already two sessions of pallet workshops have occurred! While waiting for the luxuriant vegetation and the planting of the vine, a sewing workshop to make patchwork canvases will allow us to shade the pergola a little this summer!

Despite of the cold weather, we kept on working at the construction site of the Agrocité in Agnettes!
Last wednesday we built a dry-stone wall consisting out of reused stones which we had collected from different construction sites in the surrounding area.

From June 4 to 7, the beekeeping season officially began at Agrocité, with initiation workshops into the arts and lives of bees!  Workshops were run by Alain, a local beekeeper who has developed a small apiary, allowing interested inhabitants to learn and practice with him.

Workers, the queen, drone, swarming, queen cells, nectar, pollen, honey, propolis are all a part of what keeps bees busy and what nourishes our planet… It is in a spirit of respect for the bee and their needs that is crucial to beekeeping, as Alain has instilled in us. We thank him and invite interested parties to make themselves known because the magic of beekeeping has only just begun!

Agrocité has become new home to a collection of beautiful chickens and busy bees!

Eight chickens have recently inhabited the coop located towards the back of Agrocité. As you can see from the pictures below, these chickens are no ordinary chickens! They come in different shapes and sizes, colours and textures-  some feathered and some fluffy, some with hair like mohawks while others with hair on feet!

The three hens pictured below arrived on the 12th of May and have already began laying beautiful eggs (which are for sale at agrocité’s non-consumerist shop selling delicious local produce)!

The other five chickens (pictured below)  arrived a week later and are younger in age, meaning they havent began laying and are still a bit shy in their new home. These chickens were given to us by a local chicken appreciation society who will soon hold an educational workshop to teach us about our new feathery friends, including how to take care of them, their different personalities (what they like and dont like), the different breeds of chickens as well as answer any questions you might have!

Keep an eye and ear out for the chicken workshop- date is soon to be announced!

The other, less cuddly but nonetheless important, residents of Agrocité are the bees! Given to us by Alan the local beekeeper, this swarm of bees have been busy settling into their new surroundings, tasting the springtime flowers and making delicious honey! More hives are to arrive in the coming weeks.

We have built an area so you can come and watch the bees do what they do from a safe enclosure, while you are free to enter the chicken coop and say hi to our new feathered friends!

See you soon!

Agrocité is coming to life! We are finally using the building for one of its original purposes: as a greenhouse!

Currently growing is a selection of squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cabbage and lettuce! With new seeds sprouting each day, you can really watch life unfurl before your eyes..