Since the Middle Ages, the landscape of the Hortillonnages gardens has continually evolved, transforming into a structured piece of land, criss-crossed by market garden plots. With the departure of the farmers, nature is gradually resuming its rights: the result is a complex mixture of islands, both cultivated and abandoned, whose evolution The Cloud Collective studio has attempted to portray. An island, crossed by a translucent structure, depicts this perpetual metamorphosis. In order to cross it from one end to the other, the visitor, as they leave the jetty, has in fact to go through two parallel corridors: printed on sliding panels, maps reproduce the advancement of the two fronts, nature and agriculture. It’s up to the walkers to manipulate these walls, the movement of one obstructing the passage of the other, hence the need for collaboration between members of the same group to reach the end of the site.

Based in Amsterdam, Anvers and Paris, The Cloud Collective design studio has included a multidisciplinary team since 2012: in accordance with the projects, ten architects, graphic designers, scenographers, town planners, programmers and designers pool their skills, to offer an approach which is always original. For this project, the collective brought together two Dutch architects, Joris Lipsch and René van Poppel and a French graphic designer, Florian Pic.