Nomad’s Land | YOANN CIMIER

December 12, 2015 - January 23, 2016 | le 32 Bis


In Tunisia, on the fringes of the private beaches of resort hotels, the local population occupies each summer the public beaches, improvising for the duration of a day an ephemeral habitat, a micro-architecture in connection with nature. Wild camping, vernacular shelter, or expression of the Bedouin tradition, these nomadic bubbles anchored in the sand illustrate various solutions devised to fully enjoy the pleasures of the beach.

The pursuit of comfort is a constant in all human construction. Each of these bubbles is a spatial organization whose construction rules are dictated by the materials used (carpets, mats, foutas, umbrellas, wood…), arranged according to the capacities and choices of each. The result is a diversity of installations, a complex interweaving of simple elements whose layout and orientation are determined by the course of the sun, the intensity of the wind, and the functional satisfaction of needs and activities.

Horizontality, verticality, angulation, curvature, continuity, discontinuity, superposition, dissociation of constructed space… Behind the apparent simplicity of the forms, the combination and juxtaposition of these elements constitute complex causal relationships: economic, social, and cultural factors here determine the architectural response. In an environment left to those who disfigure it, Tunisians spontaneously erect an architecture of happiness, soothing and poetic, which contrasts with the hegemony of starred hotels where luxury and comfort are often only promises of happiness.

As a formal expression of the mythical and spiritual relationship of Tunisians with their environment, this nomadic micro-architecture has the virtue of showing us the possibility of recreating, on a human scale, a small paradise on earth.