“Les boqueteaux du musée": development of the Arts et Métiers forecourt, Paris
As part of “Mangez le musée” (Eat the Museum), the museum's forecourt which circulates around the perimeter of the Saint-Martin-des-Champs church, is reviving the woodland trace that preceded its construction. Reminiscent of the small woods that provided refuge for biodiversity, five planted islands welcome visitors and offer them the place to sit in the garden.
A temple dedicated to technology and industry since the French Revolution, the church of Saint Martin-des-Champs is a vestige of the cloister in which the Conservatoire des arts et métiers has been situated since 1798. Archaeological excavations, carried out beneath the floor of the nave during the museum's renovation in the 1990s, confirmed the existence of a funerary sanctuary dating back to the Merovingian period. Prior to construction of the buildings, the site was predominantly woodland.
The project is inspired by the reconstitution of an ancient form of woodland, the “boqueteaux”. It takes the landscape form of a succession of small groves of trees and shrubs, combined with ground cover species and flowering plants, found in the forest environment. Each of the five islands recreates an ecosystem reflecting the variety of landscapes on the antecedent Seine plain. Distributed across the forecourt, they suggest a new circulation path for this public space.
In nature, boqueteaux, small wood groves surrounded by non-forested areas, are usually home to many animals. By recompensing a place for plants in urban space, the museum invites visitors, local residents and passers-by to pause for a moment in a little corner of greenery.
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The Musée des Arts et Métiers is part of the large Cnam (the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers) islet in Paris's 3rd arrondissement. It is one of several islets and plots of grass in the middle of the city that have remained little used. The Museum wanted to re-invite the public to stroll through this space and discover it in a different way. In fact, it was no longer noticed by residents and visitors alike. At best, they crossed over to the Museum's entrance gates, with a photo stop in front of the Statue of Liberty. These were minimalist uses that the landscape designers wanted to change.
The orientation of the project was therefore first and foremost convivial before being cultural: the aim was to reach out to the public by offering them a more informal setting than the Museum's galleries.
A new meeting place
By commissioning an ephemeral construction, the
Museum created an opportunity to initiate the
creation of a new social space, forging links
with the neighborhood, its residents and
visitors. The idea was to reproduce a touch of
“village” and initiate a “block party”
atmosphere.
By taking part in Françoise Schein's artistic
project, the Museum proposed collective
discovery through small, repetitive actions,
based around the installation of her central
work, in the form of a lunch on the table,
benches or in the grass.
“Les boqueteaux": a historical, cultural and ecological form
One inspiration for the design of the forecourt
came from Alain Sonfist's “Garden of Time” in
New York, USA. To rediscover the continuity of
place, the tactile and physical reality of life,
we had to refer to the passage of time, to the
past, to the division into islands, to the
partitioning, to the delimitations found today.
Nature performs a psychological, ecological and
aesthetic function in everyday life, reducing
effort and stress, and in a way encouraging
reflection and relaxation.
The Romantics sought to create an idealized
artistic vision, through pastoral scenes like
those of Turner and Constable. The truth is that
nature is a volatile, powerful force that is
part of our lives and affects us immeasurably.
Alan Sonfist's “Garden of Time” was the first
environmental sculpture to raise questions about
our urban environment. It revived the public's
sense of natural history.
“His design, which included a palette of native trees, shrubs, wild grasses, flowers, plants and rocks, was derived from extensive research into the botany, geology, and history of New York. The result of his efforts was a developing forest that represents the Manhattan landscape inhabited by Native Americans and produced by Dutch settlers in the early 17th century. Yet the design draws an era that fits seamlessly into Manhattan's 21st-century urban scenography.”
Historical and cultural aspects of the proposed layout
Historically speaking, the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers has been housed in the former church of Saint-Martin-des-Champs since 1798, a temple dedicated since the French Revolution to technology and industry. “Archaeological excavations, carried out beneath the floor of the nave during the museum's renovation in the 1990s, confirmed the existence of a funerary sanctuary dating back to the Merovingian period (5th-8th centuries).”
It was imperative to take the reference period prior to the construction of the Saint-Martin-des-Champs church for this development project. Similarly, a map drawn by Abbé Jean Delagrive (carto.apur.org), shows the area around the church was mostly woodland.
A revealing study entitled “Etude archéologique sur la Seine dans le Val-de-Marne du Paléolithique au haut Moyen Âge” (Archaeological study of the Seine in the Val-de-Marne from the Palaeolithic to the High Middle Ages) has served as a reference document for the recomposition of an ancient form of woodland - boqueteaux. This study decribes a succession of landscapes composed from sparse vegetation, made up of small groves of shrubs and a few trees, from open landscape to a state before forest settlement.
The arrangement of small groves inside and outside the Museum's gates - created continuity - and a tactile and physical reality of life within the neighborhood.
The ecological aspect of the proposed service
The proximity of human and plant life made it necessary to consider the right distances between trees and inhabitants. For the museum, which manages the site, an economy of means was important and weighed in this project, both in terms of implementation and management over time.
The aim was to defend the place of nature in the city, by designing in mass (a wood grove) rather than in lines (an alignment of trees) or points (isolated trees). This proposal was also inspired by the meeting between François Roumet (landscape architect, urban planner and professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Paysage de Versailles) and the Transformateur (Saint-Nicolas de Redon 44460), where landscape is practiced in a productive capacity.
The purpose also procured an opportunity to
rethink the appropriate place of vegetation in
all kinds of developments, particularly at a
time of differentiated management, which calls
for the anticipation of technical options
directly from the design phase.
This project has permitted the demonstration
that it is possible to provide good conditions
for the development of trees in an urban
context. The establishment of a small, wooded
area on a more lavish surface, starting from
soil comparable to that of previous experiments
(inert and ungrateful, covered with a concrete
or asphalt slab) appeared to be a solution
demonstrating a new smart and economical
arborization, transposable to an urban context.
“Boqueteaux” are small wood groves or bosk, surrounded by non-forested areas, providing refuge for biodiversity in the much the same manner as small thickets planted in the countryside as a retreat for hares, partridges, etc.
Site constraints, non-permanent features
The proposed layouts were designed to maintain a clear view of all spaces in the forecourt. Care was taken to avoid creating nooks invisible to the guards from the entrance gate. The bins have a regular volume and have been separated by large distances. The escape route from the emergency exit has not been impeded.
Details of plant types and associated materials for new landscaping
We chose low-maintenance plants from a forest nursery. The trees were planted in such a way as to resemble as closely as possible to a regular, monospecific, seedling forest. The trees were chosen to be about 2 meters high and slim fitting.
The planter floors were covered with ferns, anemone bulbs and foxgloves. The 2.5 x 2.5-meter tubs are 1 meter high.
La Fabrique terrestre, aquatique et aérienne : Project Team : Christina Ottaviano-Boury, Juliette Blondelle ; équipe d’aménagement paysager : Greta Colombo, Cornelia Geske, Robin Weicherding, Yann Honnoré, Geoffrey Leger, Lainard Germain, Baptiste G-Hache.
Iconographic credits : DR, Droit Réservé, Christina Ottaviano, Juliette Blondelle, Greta Colombo
https://WWW.arts-et-metiers.net/musee/mangez-le-musee-installation-de-loeuvre-table-de-francoise-schein-au-musee-des-arts-et
https://WWW.arts-et-metiers.net/musee/y-t-il-un-jardin-devant-le-musee-des-arts-et-metiers
https://WWW.arts-et-metiers.net/musee/mangez-le-musee
