> See Cours Buissonières #2 : The Asterogrotte

Bushcrafting courses
Bordeaux Growing Up Natural

In 2021, the Municipality of Bordeaux is launching a vast project to rehabilitate the city’s schoolyards and nurseries. More than 150 establishments are concerned by the renaturation of recreation areas, the removal of waterproofing, the renewal of furniture and the invention of more inclusive and less gendered spaces.

4 groups were selected for the project. Each year, the contracting authority assigns to the project managers the establishments that will be the object of the transformations.

We responded alongside the Base landscape agency. Articulating with their consultation and their implementation site, Bruit du frigo is working on the manufacture of a playful furniture. It is similar to a cabin, whose uses and theme are defined with the educational team and the children of the school during participative workshops. Depending on the age, the workshops are sometimes creative workshops, sometimes playful consultation workshops. Our intention: to feed the specifications of a furniture to be built.

This time of creation and exchange allows us to produce a sketch that is discussed with the educational community and validated by the project manager. The construction site is mostly done in situ during school time so that the children can also contribute to its elaboration.

2022 – Crèche Sainte Colombe – Tipituile

After a time of visit of the site of the nursery and the elaboration of the mass plan of the agency Base, we meet the educational team and proceed to the writing of the specifications of the ludic furniture. We propose a hut inspired by the “teepee” shape and submit the possibility of using a traditional roofing to protect facades and roofs from bad weather: the shingle. The nursery assistants are convinced by the triangular shape and seduced by the wood material in its entirety.

The dimensions and objectives of the hut are defined together according to the desires of the personnel and the constraints of the site. The team wanted the furniture to be mobile and to adapt to the occupation of the courtyard, which varies according to the children’s activities. The openings and perforations of the furniture respond to a playful aspect as well as to the awakening of the child. They also allow the staff to keep an eye on what is going on inside.

Children’s participation

We have provided the nursery with wooden “tiles” (shingles), made from Douglas fir planks, so that the children can draw and paint on them. All their creations participate in the realization of a unique and singular Tipituile.

We also animated a painting workshop with the children of the nursery. Their creations were printed on cushion covers to dress the inside of the Tipituile in a comforting way.

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