Miniature villages

As editor of this website I have a series of texts in mind, namely texts that deal with common elements in the various outsider environments I so far have presented seperately in my weblog Outsider Environments Europe.

This first text is about miniature villages.

Miniature villages by creators of environments: three examples

Introduction

Europe has various miniature parks, open spaces that display miniature buildings and models, mostly created by professionals as tourist attractions.and for commercial purposes.

So we know Legoland (Denmark), Madurodam (Netherlands), Mini-Europe (Belgium), France-Miniature (France), Miniatur Wunderland (Germany), etc

But Europe also has its non-commercial, small-scale miniature villages, made by non-professionals, creative constructs that can be considered as art environments.

Bouvarel

My favourite is Le ron des fades, located in the small community of Dompnac in France, in a territory that in term of landscape is part of the Cévennes.

Created by Pierre Bouvarel, a retired farmer, this ensemble of miniature buildings, on scale 1:12, is a tribute to the traditional, artisinal way of constructing houses and other buildings in this part of the country.I like it because of its maker's authentic and unassuming approach and the visual quality of the ensemble.

In the Cévennes the stones that cover the roofs, mainly are slices of schist (lauzes) and a special technique is required to arrange them in such a way that they provide good protection aginst the rain.

In his constructions Bouvarel first of all demonstrates he has pleasure in creating something beautiful, featuring the culture of the part of the world where he lives and then he focuses upon the simple beauty of roofs made from lauzes.

The houses and the other built constructions of the site, such as a church and a bridge, have been modeled on existing structures in Dompnac and the surrounding Valley of the Drobie River.

Marchi

Next, two sites from Corsica.

First the Carrioluminiature villlage, created by Jean-Claude Marchi, using little stones he came along when making a walk in the environment.

When he made his first miniature house, he probably had no idea that this leisure passtime would result in a complete miniature corican village, a replica of the small community of Rostinu, that in former times was located in these surroundings.

The genesis of this creative construct has the same characteristic as our first example`someone living in the area, making some beautiful ensemble of architectonic constructs in accordance with the area´s traditional architectonic culture.

Periault couple

Finally, the Cuttoli-Cortichiato miniature village, constructed by Lionel Periault (Rennes, 1953) and his wife Sylvaine

The story is, that when some shrubs along the path of access to their house had been removed, the space looked so empty, that the retired couple decided to build some miniature houses along the path. In the course of the years a mini world came into being in the garden around the house, stretching some 55 meters and raising some 8 meters along the hilly side of the garden.

There are houses, towers, windmills, bridges, donjons, tiny people, grouped into a numer of communities (northern and southern Corsica, Brittany, the Provence).

Although the site also has some relatively large items, such as a shell-decorated sculpture of a sea princess and a replica of the Eiffel Tower, decorated with mosaics, the site at large evokes the atmosphere of rural communities from former times..

Once more we see affinity with local traditional architectonic culture, although supplemented with other elements (lore and cultural landmarks)

Common characteristics

The most important common characteristic is the appreciation and demonstration of regional architectonic culture.

Then, all three creative constructions, made by non-professional people, have been made by making use of locally available material (small stones, slices of schist, etc.).

As happens more often, both Marchi and the Periaults started their project by chance (of Bouvarel this is not known) and once they had started, it would become kind of a lifetime project.

These miniature villages can be considered as artistic creations, since they bear witness of the drive of their makers to give another meaning to their habitat, doing this by making an ensemble of small constructions of architectural beauty. As creators of outsider environments they do this with no other purpose then embellishing their garden, meanwhile paying tribute to the architectonic culture of the areas of living they are familiar with.

added to OEE texts june 2013