Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur - Champ-Clavel subdivision
- department: Hautes-Alpes
- Municipality: Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur
- naming: Champ-Clavel subdivision
- Author: Pierre MOUTARD (urban architect)
- date: around 1965
- protection: unprotected building
- label patrimoine XXe: Commission régionale du patrimoine et des sites (CRPS) du 15 March 2007
The operation was carried out in the 65’s, in the context of land consolidation on the one hand, and at a time when the question of the future of the sector was raised: decline in agriculture, development of tourism. It is exemplary in that it combines the issue of land consolidation and urban planning, and is a public operation. It also served as a model for two similar operations in Champsaur, Chaillol and Laye, and gave rise to the term "land consolidation".
The operation is to be remembered as a witness of a proactive policy that tries to reconcile the maintenance of agriculture and tourism development, and to answer the question of the occupation of the territory (at a time when people leave) and its controlled development.
The land of La Gardiole, belonging to the commune and unusable for agriculture, was then made available to the shepherds for grazing. At the same time, the departmental direction of agriculture (DDA) drew and built a residential subdivision of a dozen lots in this sloping area.
The project is controlled by the DDA and managed by the engineer Pierre Chauvet; it is also an architect of the DDA, Pierre Moutard, who draws the subdivision and the 4 or 5 models of houses. The facades are imposed; the interior devices can be modified. Originally, deforestation around the houses is forbidden. The objective is the inscription in the landscape.
This subdivision is characterized by its low density, its integration into the natural environment, its unity, the modesty and the quality of its architecture. The materials are simple: combination of wood and coated concrete, steep asphalt shingle roof. The wood cladding and the careful implementation of the second work (eaves, brackets, railings, balconies, etc.) enrich simple architectural forms.
Depending on the slope, the interior architecture offers two apartments superimposed or articulated in half-levels that bring quality and fluidity to the spaces. This operation, with its simplistic architectural character, can today appear as luxurious because of its discretion in a remarkable landscape (bocage and bois du Champsaur) and by the privileged link to nature that it offers to the residents (total immersion).
Compared to current production, in view of what is traditionally known at altitude, it seems very interesting.
- Editor: Jean-François Lyon-Caen, Grenoble School of Architecture, 2006