During the semester, we made an extensive survey of the farmers’ effort to care for and adapt the formal heritage of the Bassenges site. The site’s-built heritage is not just an empty box whose image we want to preserve, but a (re)production tool that hosts a rich cultural offering, strong social ties, numerous ecosystems and occupants.
We can see that the presence of the collective generates a wide spectrum of activities that influence the formal heritage. This mix of social, productive and domestic activities forms the current cultural heritage which is the last fragment of the Dorigny campus’ agricultural past. If activities are discontinued, all that will remain is a symbolic image of heritage. The image of agriculture that is being eradicated is being locked up in the museum.
The uses of the spaces materialize themselves on the farm. Each one of those axonometries represents the link between production, buildings, actors and environment. The survey of those traces during the semester permitted us to have a better understanding of those interactions. The limit between domestic, productive and social spaces fades away as the systems of the farm are becoming more dependent on each other. The collective is actively caring for the buildings as they are an essential part of their subsistence system. They are the tools helping them to transform their production. They are at the center of the social ties generated by the farmers’ activities.