Le contrat moral de la Nive

TEAM PORTRAIT

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”?
We wanted to consider the Nive River not as a resource to be exploited, but as a natural entity that sustains the territory through the ecosystem services it provides. We then asked ourselves how to repay these services, how to give back to the Source, to Re-source. Through the project “The Moral Contract of the Nive,” we propose that our human capacity to build community be harnessed in the form of citizen governance that guarantees a moral contract committing us to the Nive River to return all services rendered.In doing so, we aim to move from extraction to relationship, from use to care, and from passive benefit to active responsibility. The project then focuses on regenerating the "awareness of the Nive River," of the services it provides, among the inhabitants of its watershed. It draws on the citizen-led model of the former Bilçar du Labourd and reinvents it to enable renewed community involvement, serving and protecting the Nive. This awareness allows for action within the territory by understanding and respecting the hydro-sedimentary dynamics of the watershed, thereby reducing human impact.

2. How did the issues of your design and the questions raised by the site mutation meet?
From the theoretical concept, a spatial translation was needed to implement such a governance system. To this end, we conceived the first articles of the “Nive Moral Contract.” Through these articles, the Nive River regains co-ownership of its floodplain. We then propose concrete actions and best practices to be implemented within this space for dialogue between the Nive and the users of the watershed. The project also proposes the repurposing of existing buildings to implement and disseminate this contract.

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