22. L’ode à Gaïa

Anna-Laura BOURGUIGNON and Josué OLGUIN, architects, Clément AQUILINA, boilermaker, Jérôme VATÈRE, wood craftsman and Stéphane AVENET, landscape gardener

 

 

Anna-Laura Bourguignon is a young Franco-Mexican architect who studied in Paris and Mexico. She is interested in sustainable architecture and participative approaches to creating cities. She has a passion for rammed earth architecture and carpentry, and works both independently and with Capaz, a charitable organisation that works in Mexico and Vietnam. Since her first visit to Chaumont-sur-Loire she has continued to enjoy nature, gardens and urban agriculture, and has tried to learn as much as possible about all the various aspects that make up more sustainable architecture.

Josué Olguin is a young Mexican architect who works on architectural projects that integrate construction systems with natural materials such as earth and bamboo. His first experiments were in communities in rural Mexico where as well as building, he ran education workshops for architecture students. He now works in France and Mexico.

 

LAO, Ludique Architecture et Objet is an architectural and design practice that also builds hand-made furniture. LAO designs spaces and developments and helps with design. LAO uses a holistic approach in its professional practice that works to integrate both project management and the user. LAO designs and builds objects, furniture and layouts in wood and metal in their studio on L’Île-Saint-Denis near Paris. The business is a co-operative and belongs to its employees, all of whom have the same decision-making powers.

 

Located in Saint-Christophe-sur-le-Nais in Indre-et-Loire, Coccinelles et Jardin specialises in ecological gardening. Coccinelles et Jardins was founded in 2004 by Stéphane Avenet, who, drawing on years of experience and experimentation (and inspired by the work of Éric Petiot, Jean-Paul Collaert, William Robinson, Lydia and Claude Bourguignon, and Bill Mollison) was convinced of the need to be environmentally-friendly and promote sustainable development.