When high school students and architecture students work hand in hand

As part of the "Off-Site" workshop currently taking place in Jumilhac-le-Grand, students from the National School of Architecture in Clermont-Ferrand returned to spend a week in the town to create street furniture on-site. Friday was dedicated to a collaborative project between the students and middle school students from Châlus.

Rethinking the living environment

Since 2016, the Périgord-Limousin Regional Natural Park has been organizing "Off-Campus" workshops with numerous universities across France. These workshops bring teams of students from various disciplines to the region to develop projects with local communities focused on revitalizing rural areas . Municipalities thus benefit from a fresh perspective on their rehabilitation projects, while the students gain practical experience through hands-on projects in supportive, experimental settings.

Launched in the fall of 2025, the "Hors les Murs" workshop in Jumilhac-le-Grand aims to support the town in its reflection on the living environment of its residents. Until the summer of 2026, it involves students from the University of Bordeaux Montaigne (Master's program in Cultural and Intercultural Project Engineering) and the National School of Architecture of Clermont-Ferrand.

The project invites us to look ahead to the next twenty years by integrating the challenges of ecological and societal transitions . The commission focuses on the connections between the town centre, the extensions of La Perdicie and the gymnasium, the uses of the town centre, the links with the banks of the Isle, as well as the development of public spaces.

An initial visit at the end of 2025 allowed the students to conduct an assessment of the area and the needs of the residents. During this visit, they carried out street interviews to meet with them.

Investing in public space

At the end of January, the seven students from the National School of Architecture returned to Jumilhac for five days, tasked with designing public spaces that would illustrate their vision for the town. They were supervised by a teacher and a carpenter.

The constraints of the project were as follows: use of locally sourced or recycled materials; integration of feedback from the initial assessment; buy-in from municipal staff; participation of middle school students from Châlus; and inauguration of the completed projects with the community. "Building together" formed the foundation of the experience. Anchoring the project within the local area was the priority.

To design their street furniture, the students had access to stakes and chestnut wood chips from the Rilhac-Lastours Chestnut Grove; hazel and broom branches collected from local residents; and bamboo cut that very day. The village hall and rooms adjoining the town hall were also made available to them. Two sites were chosen: the grassy path leading down to the castle and a more secluded municipal plot of land used each year as a parking lot during the summer flea market.

Along the path , the students chose to alter the viewpoints by slightly shifting the gaze , thus diminishing the symbolic and visual prominence of the castle. To achieve this, installations playing with the slope were created using chestnut stakes, string, woven broom, and wood chips. These installations allow the gaze to be diverted in two stages, with a bouncing effect off the remarkable trees . Depending on their vantage point, visitors can therefore momentarily forget the castle or, conversely, rediscover it with a heightened sense of presence.

On the plot , the work involved building a bench integrated into a design that plays with the vanishing lines created by the rooftops of the houses and the focus on the castle. Made using a mortise and tenon system, it is demountable and reproducible. Its comfortable seat invites one to enjoy winter sunsets facing the castle.

Bringing together university and high school students

On Friday, January 30th, students from the Graphic Arts program at Pierre Desproges Middle School in Châlus joined the university students for a site visit. Some of them had already visited in November to explore the town, sketch, and create pop-up models. The entire group had also designed posters in class, summarizing the work they had done with the university students on surveying, gathering local stories, and developing proposals for the project. These posters were displayed in the shared space.

Late in the morning, spread across two sites, the middle school students participated in two activities: first, weaving with plants and wood chips, and second, creating an installation using bamboo found on site. The university students acted as mentors to the pupils; the day proved to be rich in exchanges and imbued with a strong human dimension.

The future of these facilities will depend on the maintenance provided by the municipality. Designed to be temporary and adaptable, they are intended to evolve over time, according to how the residents use them.