- Description
2018, Bordeaux (FR), Town Hall extension
Marking routes through the offices of the Town Hall extension.
The extension is located in Place Rohan (Roc’han in Breton). It hosts the offices of around fifty municipal employees. The building is a tangle of doors, staircases, offices and dead ends. The installation provided an opportunity to explore the site, to encounter its history and to invite its current occupants to inhabit it. Following research carried out in the Bordeaux Métropole archives, I have named this area ” The 3 Roc’han Houses”. The marking constitutes a link between staff, visitors and different generations of inhabitants. The 6 routes correspond to the way of visitors, to the teams’ geography and to the twists and turns of the architecture. The installation was explored during a walk with the staff to discover the layers that make up the building.
- Details
– tape
– lost objects
– 2 floors building
– 2 hours walk
Topographic map of the 3 Houses of Roc’Han
- Note
Roc’han means little rock in Breton. It gave its name to a small city in Morbihan area and to the Rohan’s family. One of his descendants, Ferdinand Maximilien Mériadec de Rohan, Archbishop of Bordeaux, built the famous Rohan’s Palace in 1772, which became Bordeaux’s Town Hall in 1835. From the beginning of the 20th century, the city bought the 3 houses next to it, one after the other, on Rohan’s square. In 2018, this block, known as the City Hall Extension, hosts the offices of the Department of Cultural Affairs and the service of founded objects of the Municipal Police.
Starting point in front of the building entrance
Marking on the Elie staircase steps
Legend for the topographic map of the 3 Houses of Roc’Han
2nd Floor, altitude 28m, “Troussard” locality
1st Floor, Altitude 24m, “Les deux Réhabilitations” area
2nd Floor, Altitude 28m, “L’Anticaille” Domain
