Real Time : Features & reviews

Sharp edges: Unit 1 in Monpazier, France

A short summary of Diploma Unit 1ʼs trip to Monpazier in Southern France

A quick look at the clear grid plan of Monpazier, a well-preserved example of a medieval Bastide town in the Dordogne region of France, might well lead one to believe that a week was a long time to spend in such a small, apparently simple town. The clarity of its geometry and strongly defined boundary belies the richness and subtle complexity of the place, which nestles on a crest of a rolling French agricultural landscape.

Travelling by train to Bergerac and by coach to Monpazier gave us a sense of the open expanse of this region of France, its wide rivers, many tributaries and canals punctuating a highly cultivated and fertile landscape. We travelled past the esteemed and seemingly endless vineyards of Bordeaux, to the neatly ordered plum growing orchards around Monpazier. The town, developed principally between 1250 – 1600, must be seen in this much wider context in order to make sense of its history and its architecture.

The Bed and Breakfast I shared with five others in our group stayed in was demonstrative of the architectural rigour of the town that is apparent at every scale. One of this solidly constructed stone houseʼs more elaborate features is a lightwell in the centre of the house. Positioned next to the chimney, it drops light into the centre of what is quite a deep plan. Amazingly, the building is at least 350 years old. The house, now owned by a formidable pair of English ex-pats, sits in a dense urban block near the townʼs piazza. Its front door opens directly onto a neatly cobbled street.

The hospitable B&B proprietors, who have mastered both French food and wine, were happy to share both with us. They do not feel out of place being English in Monpazier, as they are part of a strong lineage of English occupation of a very French landscape. Monpazier was founded in 1284 by King Edward I, it was one of almost seven hundred fortified towns, known as Bastides built during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to help colonise the then wilderness of southwest France. The town wears this history on its sleeve. The point at which the English would have planted a flag pole in the ground and declared it the centre of a new town some 750 years ago is still visible on the stone paving adjacent to the piazza.

After a day or so of exploring the town and the surrounding landscape, we divided up into groups of two or three to get to grips with the town in more detail. We studied different parts through sketching, photography and measured surveys of different areas in order to better understand what made a successful, or conversely poor public space. This was done at a variety of different scales, from the narrow ʻcarreyrueʼ alleyways to the more recent sprawl of housing at the northern edge of the once strongly defined town. We were also lucky enough to visit several other Bastide towns in the region, and to compare their different landscape situations and urban structures. Different Bastides use different types of underlying grid size and spacing, and are defined and defended in a variety of ways: a river; a high wall; a cliff. Typically however, they are quite clearly ordered and include a market square surrounded by arcades known as ʻcouvertsʼ. Perhaps their most distinguishing feature, a result of the reasons how and why they were developed, is the strong edge they have between town and country.

A trip to Bordeaux and to an early housing project designed by Le Corbusier in Pessac allowed us to vary the scale and language of the architecture we were studying. This prompted reflections and debates about what we think is more or less successful public space, and what helped to constitute it. We moved towards a discussion focusing on how one might design a successful garden, street or town square in a way that is relevant to the city it is in.

The next months will see the unit first compiling and pooling our research, and then moving on to explore a project of our own choosing. Students will be proposing interventions to the public space either within Monpazier or near St James Square in London. During this time we will keep in mind the simple idea of generosity to the city and its inhabitants through the medium of good quality public space, a sense I am sure will endure from our experience of Monpazierʼs beautiful and unpretentious market square.