Submission: November 30, 2014
Registration: November 30, 2014
Language: English, French
Location:Chouze-sur-loire, Savonnières; France
Prizes: The two winning projects will be built
Type: Open competition
The Loire and bicycle form the tandem of the decade and that, surely, of many to come. This alternative to the traditional holidays delights more and more tourists in search of a privileged relation with nature as much as a cultural wealth.
The 800-kilometers trail stretching along the river offer many occasions to discover a rich heritage, whether royal or popular, built or natural, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site or not.
On the the Loire à Vélo® route, regions, departments and cities do their best to meet the needs of some 850 000 listed touring cyclists each year.
Accommodation and restaurants are priorities but places for a rest during the day need also to be imagined beyond the simple bench, as many refuges which in the long term will punctuate the route. And why not on a European scale since the Loire à Vélo® falls under the Eurovélo way which makes it possible to join the Black Sea?
It is, in the tradition of the wine departments that this river sprinkles, a small construction called a “loge”, that is a “vineyard house”, or “cabin”. This building of a surface of approximately 15 square meters, with only one room, offered to the wine growers a shelter during the long days of work, whether during winter or summer.
These genuine little houses reduced to their simplest expression, marked the Loire landscape and make people dream. One easily sees oneself there living a simple but essential life. Like what one experiences when spending the whole days on a bicycle, with only a pair of satchels, a map and water. Once those little cabins were used by people “on the road”, wanderers looking for a refuge for the night when going from one village to the other. The idea is to reinvent this use and to inscribe it in our contemporary world.
By taking up the idea of the cabin, the candidates are invited to design a shelter meant for touring cyclists. Not connected, it rests on a base enabling it to be moved for the off-season period and to have a less impact on the site in which it is located. It must meet the French standards of the light leisure dwelling (Habitat Léger de Loisir).
The microarchitecture experience will be complete.
