FORMS OF ADAPTATION
Forms of Adaptation examines our capacity to design spaces that do not impose a fixed form or narrative, but instead accompany transformations, whether human, territorial or ecological.
Inhabiting transitions means designing an architecture capable of accompanying moments of upheaval. The two projects address different yet complementary transitions: one looks at the transformation of our relationship with death and mourning, the other at the changes territories are undergoing in the face of ecological, climatic and political crises.
At different scales, both question how individuals and communities move through long, uncertain and sensitive processes.
In these projects, shifting temporalities refer to multiple, overlapping timeframes. The territorial residencies project prompts reflection on the memory of territories and on projection towards possible futures, while the humusarium is rooted in the time of mourning, the transformation of the body and the regeneration of a polluted territory.
Speakers
- Héloïse CULLERON, École Supérieure d’Art et de Design, ESDAC Rennes
– Humusation, a new approach to death – Héloïse Culleron
This project questions contemporary funeral practices in the light of societal, ecological and cultural challenges. Today, traditional funeral rites no longer meet the expectations of a largely non-religious population and have a significant environmental impact. In this context, humusation has emerged: an entirely ecological funeral alternative that transforms the bodies of the deceased into humus. The project therefore proposes the creation of the first Humusarium in France, located on the site of the Levavasseur spinning mill, in the heart of the Seine valley.
A former industrial wasteland, the site becomes the setting for a new funeral journey, at once sensitive and regenerative. The architecture accompanies families through a new kind of funeral home, offering spaces suited to new forms of remembrance. The journey continues to an outdoor area dedicated to humusation, and then to a forest of remembrance.
In the long term, the Humusarium aims to help regenerate the polluted soils of the industrial Seine valley by planting thousands of trees. This approach thus seeks to reinvent our relationship with death by reconnecting it to the cycle of life and to nature.
OTOPO COLLECTIVE:
- Siméon NAYDENOV, architect, urban planner, doctoral candidate in urban planning at the PACTE laboratory – Université Grenoble Alpes –
- Nathan DELMAS, architect – urban planner, École Nationale Supérieure D’architecture De Grenoble, ENSAG – Institut d’urbanisme et de géographie alpine, IUGA.
– Col d’Ornon in 2050 – a territorial residency – otopo (Simeon Naydenov and Nathan Delmas)
In February 2025, the Otopo collective, made up of young urban planners, architects and political scientists, held a ten-day territorial residency at the Col d’Ornon in the Alps. Self-funded by local residents and members of the collective, the project set out to imagine socio-ecological transition scenarios for two valleys weakened by climate change and divided by opposing administrative logics. Ten practitioners surveyed the area on foot, met some twenty local stakeholders and analysed the issues through “territorial figures”, revealing tensions, resources and aspirations.
Three deliberately provocative prospective scenarios were developed to stimulate debate on the future of the territory. A presentation evening brought together some forty participants, creating a dialogue between the two valleys on these forward-looking questions for the very first time. The initiative produced a shared diagnosis, opened up collective imaginaries and strengthened ties between communities, despite the absence of a unified institutional framework.
This experience confirms the relevance of territorial residencies for co-creating desirable futures, while raising the question of their economic viability. The Otopo collective now campaigns for the institutional recognition of these practices, which it considers essential for thinking about transitions at the local level.
Respondent
- Marc Armengaud, architect and urban planner, lecturer, ENSA Paris-Malaquais, co-founder of the AWP practice
© Pierre David, 2013
Biography: Marc Armengaud is a philosopher and urban planner. He is co-founder of AWP, an office for territorial reconfiguration (www.awp.fr), which develops urban planning, architecture and landscape projects, as well as action research, in Europe and beyond. He is a curator and the author of numerous publications.
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