Vegetable gardens in High Schools – Chauny > Atelier de l’Ours, 2020 – 2021

Vegetable gardens in High Schools – Chauny > Atelier de l’Ours, 2020 – 2021

“Climate trends and new needs in terms of food and knowledge of living things make us particularly sensitive to the issues raised by this call for bids. Schoolyards, recreation areas and ideal places of discovery and learning, are very rarely linked to soil and food production. The use of the premises is often oriented towards a few recreational activities which required extensive waterproofing of the soil and thus participated in a certain standardization of these places, which are however unique in their architecture and in their landscape. Through several similar experiences, we see a real need to rethink these spaces by creating a link between the plant, the nutritive, and the learning. For this, the dynamics of the vegetable garden is positioned as a tool that is extremely well suited and adaptable to educational dynamics. The success of such an ambition is largely due to the appropriation of the project by its participants. To guarantee this, we will set up reflection and discussion workshops to achieve a common conception of the garden. Educational tools such as the drawing, the model, the life-size prefiguration will firstly allow us to address questions of location, spatial organization and uses. The questions of content, temporality and vegetable production will then be addressed in order to formalize the arrangement of the cultivation boards and the plant associations. To complete the “production” areas, “non-cultivated” areas can be considered during the educational workshops : flower beds, composting space, sowing table… So many ideas for creating a complementary living and interaction space of gardening.”

Project by Atelier de l’Ours