Ever since the 70s, people have moved away from the large housing estates due to poor sanitation and a lack of public transport. Further than the suburb but closer than the countryside, in the so-called « grey areas », a middle-class utopia made of individual houses with garden flourishes.
Subdivisions are rising out of the ground at a frenetic pace (170 000 houses per year) on cheap land on the outskirts of large metropolises with low-cost kit houses to attract the middle-class. A middle-class that used to live in city apartments and who chose to move away to project themselves and complete a kind of « dream ». A dream made of garden and kids room but deprived of local shops and leisure activities. They find themselves living in residential areas alongside large commercial areas both linked and separated by bypasses and roundabout, making the use of car essential for all daily journeys.
The construction of such areas raises issues in itself, especially for the environment : trees are cut down, houses are poorly isolated and the fauna and flora are impoverished. The city is brought to the countryside, natural and agricultural land gives way to concrete. The distance between houses and pesticide application areas is zero causing tensions between residents and farmers.
Né en 1996 dans la banlieue de Paris. Nicolas Duclos se questionne sur l’environnement urbain et les paysages façonnés par l’homme, ainsi que son habitat architectural.
© text and pictures by Nicolas Duclos
