Still, Life.

Miramas (FR) - Runner-up

TEAM DATA

Associates: Céline Donzello (FR), Claire Sarrazin (FR), Moussa Belkacem (FR) – architects

celine.donzello@hotmail.fr / sarrazin.claire@hotmail.fr / moussa.belkacem@gmail.com

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TEAM PORTRAIT

VIDEO (by the team)

INTERVIEW
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1. How do you define the main issues of your project in relation with the theme “Re-sourcing”? Re-sourcing thanks to nature, to social dynamics, to new materiality? In which way do you think your project can contribute to an ecological and/or social evolution? And in which way do you think your project can be called a “regenerative project”?
Our project addresses re-sourcing by reactivating a fringe territory as a living ecotone. Landscape dynamics, local uses and low-impact materials rebuild social ties and ecological cycles. It is regenerative because it repairs, reactivates and transmits more than it consumes.

2. How did the issues of your design and the questions raised by the site mutation meet?
The site’s ruptures, industrial heritage and ecological fragility met our approach through the idea of threshold. Instead of a brutal transformation, we accompany the mutation by revealing existing continuities, memories and everyday practices.

PROJECT:

Food-growing gardens within the collective housing blocks

A biodiversity reserve embedded in the workers’ estate

3. Have you treated these issues previously? What were the reference projects that inspired yours?
Yes, these questions extend our work on ordinary territories. Team members have worked in offices on large housing operations, rehabilitation projects and masterplans. We draw on slow transformation projects where nature, uses and history coexist.

SITE:

The railway workers’ estate, a regular and adaptable ensemble

The Crau plain, a gravel landscape shaped by water and farming

The Étang de Berre, a lagoon impacted by sediment

4. How can your project be implemented together with the actors through a negotiated process and in time. How did you consider this issue in your project?
The project unfolds step by step with local actors: workshops, reversible tests and partnerships. A material-driven approach enables inhabitants to rediscover the territory before any intervention. Negotiation and long-term timing adjust uses and shared governance.

5. How did you form the team for the competition and if so what are the skills you associated?
The team is composed of architects with complementary profiles, from academic research to on-site construction, including project development. This diversity connects critical thinking, technical know-how and the capacity to implement concrete actions.

6. How could this prize help you in your professional career?
Yes, this prize is a springboard to launch our activity. It strengthens our credibility, opens collaborations and establishes a theoretical foundation that we aim to develop within a committed practice linking research and territorial action.

TEAM IDENTITY
Legal status:
Team name:
Average age of the associates: 32 years old

Has your team, together or separately, already conceived or implemented some projects and/or won any competition? if so, which ones?
The members of the team have already won numerous competitions within the architecture offices they have worked for, contributing to the design and development of awarded projects.

WORKS: