FORT-DE-FRANCE:

OPEN HOUSE

As part of the 2022 European Heritage Days, on the theme of Sustainable Heritage, the association abité. Invites you to participate in the transformative action FORT-DE-FRANCE OPEN DOORS: a tool to recognize and enhance the life of the inhabitants of Foyal. A way to know their life stories through their homes, their spaces and its inhabitants. FORT-DE-FRANCE PORTES OUVERTES is an action inspired by activist and urban planner Jane Jacobs, which aims to promote the architecture of downtown houses as an example of showcasing Foyali architectural heritage. These traditional buildings have been the object of contemporary renovations and are the models of the “living machines” (*) of the twenty-first century.

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“NO ONE LIKES SITTING ON A BENCH OR LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW AND LOOKING AT AN EMPTY STREET. I DON’T THINK ALMOST ANYONE DOES THAT. BUT THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO LOOK AT THE ACTIVITY OF A STREET, FROM TIME TO TIME, FROM A WINDOW OR ON THE SIDEWALK” Jane Jacobs, urban activist

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Following the explosion of Mount Pelee that devastated Saint-Pierre in 1902, Fort-de-France ceased to be a military and administrative capital to become a civilian capital of the island of Martinique. The architecture of Fort-de-France is the testimony of different modes of living and, above all, of the technology of construction through the evolution of its inhabitants. We can find the presence of a metal architecture of the XIX century, a modernist architecture in reinforced concrete developed with the public investment of the great buildings of the 30s-50s, a monumental architecture of the 80s and a contemporary architecture since the 2000s with the proliferation of glass as façade materials. In addition, we find an important presence of traditional colonial architecture, often abandoned and ignored, and unfortunately, sometimes destroyed. Some inhabitants took an interest in this type of architecture and invested in developing habitable spaces, in dialogue with its architectural context of the city center, in an eco-responsible way with these lands that were once mangroves.

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During the Sunday of September 18, 2022, in a niche from 9am to 12pm, several habitable houses, identified with signs on the façade, will open their doors to visitors. The public can enter and visit the interior of these buildings, as part of a free and spontaneous tour of the city of Fort-de-France. They will be able to ask questions to the inhabitants of the house and to know its history of inhabitants of the Foyal city center, in a moment of exchanges around a café. After this moment, the participants will be invited to participate in a convivial aperitif at 12:00 pm between all the visitors and owners of the Foyal houses. All participants will have to register on the openagenda of the Ministry of Culture and they will be identified by a badge retrieved at the beginning of the activity at PATIO19 from 8:30 am on the same day of the action.