Between 1980 and 2000, as an act of humanitarianism for their former colony, France received a large influx of 200,000 immigrants fleeing their countries due to post-decolonization conflicts. This design becomes a public common ground to the migrant communities in Torcy and its peripheral, a suburban enclave positioned between Paris and Disneyland. Its subject directly comes from people experienced forced migration or refugeehood from former French colonies. Investigating interconnections between diasporic groups, it emphasizes restorative microcosms among people, plants, and the river, advocating for a communal healing typology called the “Migrant Archipelago”.
The architecture takes place in an isolated industrial warehouse on Torcy’s Marne riverbank. The architectural intervention along Marne’s riverbanks rejuvenates migrant solidarity, rekindling neglected river culture.
