A Halt in Grande Synthe

In October 2014, the organisation Plateforme de Service Migrants (PSM), working with coordinating all the charities and volunteers helping migrants in the North of France, invit- ed two members of the association Lieux Possibles, Magali Risler and Célia David Mauduit to help them imagine what a “house for migrants” could be. Located in Grande-Synthe, it would be a place to host, welcome, and orientate as the “house for migrants” aims to guarantee hospitality where the stopping place appear on the migrant journey. 

Lieux Possibles invited then the Design&Build Studio of Cyrille Hanappe to take part in the design and the construction of the place; 

Throught a four month process, the design was done in co-conception with the local organizations and migrants. The students work began in April 2015 and the buidling happened in June 2015. 

There was a huge surge in the number of inhabitants of the camp one month after the completion, as the camp passed from 80 to 3000 people. The public building became then a house for three families. 

It was burnt by smuggler in Marc 2016, in the same time the camp was emptied and relocated to a clean site designed by Médecins Sans Frontières;