Frédéric Bouvier, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

A test structure for the forest protection against fire in the Maures Mountains

A Maures Mountains (Massif des Maures) firebreak is chosen as an architectural initiative. The project is twofold with this experimental ground for the forest’s defense against fire: it uses the current issue that is the management and the maintenance of the firebreaks to indirectly make reference to Harkis’ history.

Harkis are the French army’s auxiliaries, who were left alone by France during the Algerian Independance and massacred by revenge. In other words, we choose to compensate the history’s crushing weight by suggesting an unintentional memory instead of a voluntary one. The place seems to be perfect to unify these different requirements. In fact, Harkis, at least those who were repatriated in the “hameau de forestage” in France, were in charge of the development and the fight against forests’ fires.

The days when the sustainability of a construction project was a matter of ad hoc measures are over – sustainable construction has become systematic and specific. This was emphatically shown by the results of the Holcim Awards in region Europe: The first prize was shared by two projects in Brussels, both of which excel in terms of their multi-functionality.

Entitled “firebreak”, the project proposes a structure that can be put to use when combatting forest fires in the region of Collobrières. Part water tank to extinguish fires and part shelter for hikers, the structure is additionally conceived as a monument to the Algerian volunteers who supported the French army during the Algerian War and were thereafter repatriated to serve as firemen in France. More than just a small intervention, the structure has a territorial dimension insofar as it is imbedded in an elaborate water collection system of ditches that mark the landscape.

Rain water, a common link between a firemen cistern and a test garden to fight fire

The project proposes the construction and the supply of water of a cistern for firemen of 40 cubic metres working by harvesting the upstream water flow of the site thanks to “barradine system” (a kind of ditch constructed on the mountainside in a specific manner in order to collect the rainwater), and on the downstream section of the site by a streams spillway. 10 % of the annual rainwater (1344mL in 2014) should be drained in the tanks, which would be full in one semester. During the rest of the year, the collected water would be accumulated in the intermediary tanks, and then distributed on several mountainside terraces where different varieties would be tested. A forest shelter put on the cistern will welcome the hikers of the GR90 that goes from Lavandou to Notre-Dame-des-Anges.