Prioritising the places and people that need it the most
Design des Mondes Ruraux
Design des Mondes Ruraux
The Design des Mondes Ruraux program offered by the École des Arts Décoratifs takes place off-site, in Dordogne. It focuses on the use of design in developing rural areas and responds to localised issues in close collaboration with actors in the field. The program have multiple roles, operating as a residency, laboratory, research unit and incubator.
EU Member State, Western Balkans or Ukraine
France
Regional
Dordogne
No
No
Mainly rural
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Yes
2023-06-30
No
No
No
As a representative of an organisation
Designed and implemented with local authorities and territorial stakeholders, the Design des Mondes Ruraux program consists of immersing a team of young practitioners in a rural territory, for a school year, by submitting to them, under the form of orders sent to them by local players or large operators, three issues which concern not only the territory but also urban environments in general. This will involve outlining sustainable, replicable and adapted responses to the challenges of the transition while training a generation of practitioners in practices and methods that respect our environments.
A discipline particularly suited to complexity, crisis contexts and the challenges of innovation and transition, design constitutes precisely an essential tool for meeting the major challenges of the contemporary world. When a large number of actors continue to think that design must serve the growth and development of businesses and industry, it seems to be primarily put at the service of the invention of new ways of living and inhabiting the world, to help us escape from the thermo-industrial impasse and build a more inclusive society.
From this point of view, the territorial scale offers tremendous possibilities for implementing interventions in which design accompanies virtuous experiences on a readable time scale.
It is precisely these urgent and necessary challenges, and by taking advantage of design methodologies, that the Design des Mondes Ruraux program intends to respond, by orienting itself around 3 objectives:
- Put design at the service of the transformation of urban worlds, by imagining ecological, sustainable, innovative and duplicable solutions;
- Promote new modes of cooperation and new design methodologies, reintroducing renewed modes of governance and guaranteeing inclusion;
- Train generations of practitioners in these issues and methodologies, so that they can fertilize other environments and thus sustainably modify their practices.
A discipline particularly suited to complexity, crisis contexts and the challenges of innovation and transition, design constitutes precisely an essential tool for meeting the major challenges of the contemporary world. When a large number of actors continue to think that design must serve the growth and development of businesses and industry, it seems to be primarily put at the service of the invention of new ways of living and inhabiting the world, to help us escape from the thermo-industrial impasse and build a more inclusive society.
From this point of view, the territorial scale offers tremendous possibilities for implementing interventions in which design accompanies virtuous experiences on a readable time scale.
It is precisely these urgent and necessary challenges, and by taking advantage of design methodologies, that the Design des Mondes Ruraux program intends to respond, by orienting itself around 3 objectives:
- Put design at the service of the transformation of urban worlds, by imagining ecological, sustainable, innovative and duplicable solutions;
- Promote new modes of cooperation and new design methodologies, reintroducing renewed modes of governance and guaranteeing inclusion;
- Train generations of practitioners in these issues and methodologies, so that they can fertilize other environments and thus sustainably modify their practices.
rural development
local cooperation
design methodologies
train for the transition
Sustainability
The program takes root from a critical position made necessary by an unprecedented situation: our current way of life makes our existence ecologically and socially unsustainable. To try to respond to these challenges we must review the methods of developing solutions but also of production, moving away from standardized responses not adapted to the specificity of the contexts.
While it goes without saying that the projects developed in the program are part of a logic of the lowest emissions, by focusing on short circuits, reuse and local resources, the ambition for the program is to train practitioners and civil society to methodologies respectful of our environments, capable of tackling the complexity of our challenges by thinking of tailor-made solutions, relying on local resources.
The program intends to develop methodologies and new methods of resolution rather than standardized solutions.
While it goes without saying that the projects developed in the program are part of a logic of the lowest emissions, by focusing on short circuits, reuse and local resources, the ambition for the program is to train practitioners and civil society to methodologies respectful of our environments, capable of tackling the complexity of our challenges by thinking of tailor-made solutions, relying on local resources.
The program intends to develop methodologies and new methods of resolution rather than standardized solutions.
The aesthetic properties are specific to those of an engaged living environment but they have the potential for generalization, which opens the way to other investigations and experiments. The objective in this program is not to create a new normativity, but a source to invent various ecological practices driven by the sensitive. A paradoxical dimension inhabits this posture. It is only in an aesthetic plurality that ecological relationships are possible. The aesthetic properties identified allow this sensitive diversity to occur and display characteristics radically opposed to the dominant aesthetic properties of sustainability, heir to modernism. Student designers define various properties, and consequently, aesthetic ones. Their choice promotes or hinders ecological commitment. By relying on this pragmatic knowledge of individuals committed to the environmental cause, it is possible to revisit our modes of production, our policies and associated tools and use aesthetics as a lever for ecological action in design.
The program aims to be inclusive in all places:
- on the students' side, by being attentive to ensuring great social equity in their recruitment but also by granting them the same amount annually, allowing them to dedicate themselves to the projects collectively.
- on the side of civil society, by setting up projects based on their issues and involving them at all stages, from definition to implementation.
- the general public, by making the methodologies and solutions involved accessible via a platform and tools.
In addition, the program aims to be deeply democratic since it also involves, through the projects developed, revising the modes of governance by giving each actor an equal voice. Cooperatives, agricultural high schools, farmers, distributors and elected officials therefore find themselves having to bring about forms of consensus, while respecting the words of others.
- on the students' side, by being attentive to ensuring great social equity in their recruitment but also by granting them the same amount annually, allowing them to dedicate themselves to the projects collectively.
- on the side of civil society, by setting up projects based on their issues and involving them at all stages, from definition to implementation.
- the general public, by making the methodologies and solutions involved accessible via a platform and tools.
In addition, the program aims to be deeply democratic since it also involves, through the projects developed, revising the modes of governance by giving each actor an equal voice. Cooperatives, agricultural high schools, farmers, distributors and elected officials therefore find themselves having to bring about forms of consensus, while respecting the words of others.
The project addresses territorial issues by making them a subject for experimentation: experimentation with new working methods, new modes of governance, new deliberative processes.
Challenges of the general interest are often confiscated solely by public decision-makers, local elected officials and other institutional bodies. By starting from local issues and their resonance in different places in the territory, the project intends to reverse classic deliberative processes. All stakeholders are involved, from the identification phase to the production of deliverables.
Whatever the places in which they invest or disinvest, students are responsible for mobilizing them: school campus, EPHAD, health center, sports association, working sites, agricultural cooperative etc... Daily social life becomes a pretext for commitment collective, in this way civil society has a voice in resolving issues that directly concern them.
Challenges of the general interest are often confiscated solely by public decision-makers, local elected officials and other institutional bodies. By starting from local issues and their resonance in different places in the territory, the project intends to reverse classic deliberative processes. All stakeholders are involved, from the identification phase to the production of deliverables.
Whatever the places in which they invest or disinvest, students are responsible for mobilizing them: school campus, EPHAD, health center, sports association, working sites, agricultural cooperative etc... Daily social life becomes a pretext for commitment collective, in this way civil society has a voice in resolving issues that directly concern them.
For the program to work, it is necessary that all the actors concerned by the issues raised have a voice. Thus, local actors have the possibility of investing in projects but it is the same with communities, which from the smallest scale to the largest participate financially and theoretically in the project.
The municipality, the community of municipalities, the Department, the Region but also the State participate in the operation of the program – alongside patrons, in a perfect balance – by financing it but also by asserting their voice and their expertise, via colleges of experts and steering commissions. The question of duplicating methods also goes through them since they then recruit some of the alumni (designers integrated into communities in particular).
The municipality, the community of municipalities, the Department, the Region but also the State participate in the operation of the program – alongside patrons, in a perfect balance – by financing it but also by asserting their voice and their expertise, via colleges of experts and steering commissions. The question of duplicating methods also goes through them since they then recruit some of the alumni (designers integrated into communities in particular).
We live in an era of unprecedented change, marked by the appearance of successive crises on a global scale – health, economic, social, political crises – the most serious, the most systemic of which is the ecological crisis. The complexity of these challenges facing contemporary societies requires not only a transdisciplinary and massive production of knowledge and innovations, but also citizen mobilization to guide it and give it meaning.
We precisely strive to engage this interdisciplinarity at all stages of the project:
- in recruitment first since we mix artistic profiles (artists, designers, architects, landscapers) with profiles from the social sciences (geographers, sociologists) or engineering;
- in teaching, by seeking out very diverse supervisory profiles (agronomy, hydrobiology)
- but also in the projects carried out, by mobilizing all the local forces, activists, artisans, teachers, volunteers, holders of essential knowledge.
We precisely strive to engage this interdisciplinarity at all stages of the project:
- in recruitment first since we mix artistic profiles (artists, designers, architects, landscapers) with profiles from the social sciences (geographers, sociologists) or engineering;
- in teaching, by seeking out very diverse supervisory profiles (agronomy, hydrobiology)
- but also in the projects carried out, by mobilizing all the local forces, activists, artisans, teachers, volunteers, holders of essential knowledge.
The innovation around the program lies in at least 5 main areas:
- Combine educational desire to form cohorts of young practitioners trained in new methodologies concerned with our futures with real local and sustainable applications;
- think of the transition as an adaptive methodology rather than as standardized solutions;
- rely on design and its sensitive relationship to initiate new aspirations for desirable and desirable futures;
- start from local roots to question macro issues;
- engage in new deliberative processes by focusing on renewed concertative modalities, by doing so
- Combine educational desire to form cohorts of young practitioners trained in new methodologies concerned with our futures with real local and sustainable applications;
- think of the transition as an adaptive methodology rather than as standardized solutions;
- rely on design and its sensitive relationship to initiate new aspirations for desirable and desirable futures;
- start from local roots to question macro issues;
- engage in new deliberative processes by focusing on renewed concertative modalities, by doing so
From September to June, the program welcomes young practitioners interested in questions of use, transition, innovation and way of living and who wish to connect their professional practices to environmental issues, by becoming actors in the solutions to be invented.
In addition to the workplace intended specifically for this training, and a captive ecosystem, residents benefit from a scholarship and dedicated support. Supervised by reference teachers and nourished by the occasional intervention of invited artists and theorists (geographer, sociologist, anthropologist, biologist, etc.), practitioners with varied profiles benefit from support throughout the year allowing them to familiarize themselves with a situated approach and innovative and collaborative methods lastingly modifying their practices.
The program intends to function both as:
- A residence, insofar as it offers a collective workshop and an environment conducive to research and project development.
- A laboratory, insofar as it is oriented towards experimentation and social innovation.
- A design office, to the extent that it studies the development of full-scale projects in response to specific problems or orders or in partnership with local structures (associations, educational establishments, etc.). However, he takes care not to compete with professionals in the field but to work in close collaboration with them.
- An incubator, insofar as it allows professional projects to be tested and consolidated.
In addition to the workplace intended specifically for this training, and a captive ecosystem, residents benefit from a scholarship and dedicated support. Supervised by reference teachers and nourished by the occasional intervention of invited artists and theorists (geographer, sociologist, anthropologist, biologist, etc.), practitioners with varied profiles benefit from support throughout the year allowing them to familiarize themselves with a situated approach and innovative and collaborative methods lastingly modifying their practices.
The program intends to function both as:
- A residence, insofar as it offers a collective workshop and an environment conducive to research and project development.
- A laboratory, insofar as it is oriented towards experimentation and social innovation.
- A design office, to the extent that it studies the development of full-scale projects in response to specific problems or orders or in partnership with local structures (associations, educational establishments, etc.). However, he takes care not to compete with professionals in the field but to work in close collaboration with them.
- An incubator, insofar as it allows professional projects to be tested and consolidated.
Whether in terms of methods, based on an operation whose effectiveness we are now measuring, or in results, such as the project carried out in 2022 on mobility which starts from an issue of reduction soloist practices made it possible to imagine a shared mobility service designed based on school buses which could then be deployed, for use not only by employees but also by agricultural cooperatives to facilitate local distribution and thus promote the reduction of costs and circuits in a logic of sustainability, the entire project is duplicable and transferable to other territories. The Ecole des Arts Décoratifs will thus duplicate the project in Brittany and in the Central Massif, on coastal and mountainous issues.
Furthermore, the alumni finally trained can then cross-pollinate other territories with the methodologies now mastered. Finally, we are developing sharing tools, under a free license, so that each entity wishing to use the reflections or methodological tools can do so without constraint.
Furthermore, the alumni finally trained can then cross-pollinate other territories with the methodologies now mastered. Finally, we are developing sharing tools, under a free license, so that each entity wishing to use the reflections or methodological tools can do so without constraint.
The project is based on the observation that the enormous, urgent and global challenges we face require us to think of solutions on a territorial scale, close to local resources, skills and intentions. The issues of food, natural resources, social dropout and even mobility must be addressed at the scale of the living area.
It is from these scales and in renewed modes of governance, because they are based on the cooperation of all, that we intend to respond to these challenges by training those who will duplicate their effects.
It is from these scales and in renewed modes of governance, because they are based on the cooperation of all, that we intend to respond to these challenges by training those who will duplicate their effects.
The installation of a branch of the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in a rural area has palpable consequences on the environment. Interactions are established, different perspectives are reflected, representations are reconfigured, both those of rurality and design, both those of residents and designers.
1. The first impact is that of enhancing the image that residents have of their territory. By being perceived through the eyes of a prestigious institution and young designers discovering the territory, it appears in a new light, rich in great potential, to its inhabitants.
2. Tools for sharing the work carried out allow residents to tackle the issues raised and to contribute or at least to be informed of the reflection in progress: posters, assemblies, exhibitions, radio broadcasts, meetings in public space, website, publications.
3. The orders are thirdly intended to impact the structures, places or areas in which they are deployed: the School City and the policy in favor of youth, the EHPAD, the artistic professions and the actors of the solidarity economy.
Partnerships with higher education establishments are also expressly focused on the impact of the project. Aware that a crucial point for the future and sustainability of the project is the ability to assess its real impact on the territory, a Master 2 student from the UFR of geography at the University of Orléans joined the experience for almost 6 months in order to construct the relevant indicators to measure the impact of the program on the territory. This repository of indicators can be put in place from the start of the 2023 school year and will thus make it possible to evaluate this impact in the medium term (improvement of rural livability, for all age groups, economic development, political developments) .
1. The first impact is that of enhancing the image that residents have of their territory. By being perceived through the eyes of a prestigious institution and young designers discovering the territory, it appears in a new light, rich in great potential, to its inhabitants.
2. Tools for sharing the work carried out allow residents to tackle the issues raised and to contribute or at least to be informed of the reflection in progress: posters, assemblies, exhibitions, radio broadcasts, meetings in public space, website, publications.
3. The orders are thirdly intended to impact the structures, places or areas in which they are deployed: the School City and the policy in favor of youth, the EHPAD, the artistic professions and the actors of the solidarity economy.
Partnerships with higher education establishments are also expressly focused on the impact of the project. Aware that a crucial point for the future and sustainability of the project is the ability to assess its real impact on the territory, a Master 2 student from the UFR of geography at the University of Orléans joined the experience for almost 6 months in order to construct the relevant indicators to measure the impact of the program on the territory. This repository of indicators can be put in place from the start of the 2023 school year and will thus make it possible to evaluate this impact in the medium term (improvement of rural livability, for all age groups, economic development, political developments) .
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