Oskar Rischewski

Les Bouilles Heureuses is an annual architecture festival that invites participants to experiment with recycled materials from local sources (< 100 km) by building architectural and landscape features. It promotes and raises awareness of the values of inclusiveness, ecology and working together.

The first edition of this festival took place from 30 August to 03 September 2022 at Les Réautés (44), on the Distillerie 168site. This distillery was created by a couple undergoing a post-Covid reconversion process who bought the site, which had been abandoned since the farmer's death. A true Bo-Pro, according to Valérie Jousseaume, these Bourgeois-Proletarians are reacting to the neo-liberal injunction to grow and consume. Against this system, they oppose a model of social solidarity rooted in rural areas. This reconversion project is being supported by Studio Bali, which is providing project management assistance for the entire site. As part of this project, Collectif Supercali was approached to develop an architectural concept for the distillery.

Le festival Les Bouilles Heureuses festival was born out of the desire to bring a social distillery to life in a rural area that irrigates the Nantes metropolitan area. For us at Supercali, the opportunity was just too good to merge our theoretical practice, developed during our studies at Ensa Nantes, with a shared desire to work in the area. The collective took up residence at Les Réautés while the site was being prepared to welcome festival-goers. For 5 days, Les Bouilles Heureuses will be offering visitors the chance to set up on the distillery site and experiment. This experimentation is to be found not only in the worksites prepared in advance or developed during the festival, but also in the eclectic local music programme provided by young artists. Each day, a participant can discover/create a construction project using tools and materials made available to him or her, and then in the evening enjoy several sets or concerts put on by the organisers. These days are made possible by the many local partners who are all part of the festival's approach to participation and re-use.

This event was made possible by a long period of design and preparation of the site. During this development period, we collectively defined the needs of such an event in terms of equipment, space and also in terms of organisation to welcome a public that was sometimes unfamiliar with architectural experimentation.

During this magnificent first experience of Do-It-Yourself architecture, I was in charge of Communications for Les Bouilles Heureuses festival. But I was also a volunteer during the design and construction of the infrastructure needed to welcome the public to the site, in particular the Vachiotte.

Designed in the Design Process studio by Constant Lescop, a member of the collective, the Vachiotte permet d’aménager les sanitaires des festivaliers incluant 3 toilettes et 2 douches individuelles. L’architecture de l’infrastructure devait être réalisée principalement à partir de matériaux in-situ, devait accommoder plusieurs éditions rassemblant une centaine de participants à chaque fois et rendre accessible les déchets organiques qui, après deux années de repos et de fermentation, seront réinvestis dans les champs de la distillerie. Ces contraintes ont permis de déboucher sur une architecture canard, ouverte vers les champs et ressemblant à une vache.