In this section :
Creation
Art to the rescue of wastelands and abandoned places
Bunkers, railway carriages and kiosks are being given a new lease of life through creativity.
The new artisans of heritage
Old materials, new creations
Artisans and designers transform old materials into contemporary creations, combining heritage, reuse and new formal expressions.
Upcycling & object kintsugi
Revealing beauty
Upcycling and kintsugi transform everyday items, turning traces, repairs and materials into an aesthetic language.
Art to the rescue of abandoned sites and forgotten places
Disused factories, wartime bunkers, abandoned railway carriages… Throughout France and Europe, former industrial and railway sites are being reborn through bold cultural projects. Far from being mere real estate operations, these metamorphoses constitute genuine symbolic resuscitations. From the raw concrete of submarine bases to the wrought-iron lacework of exhibition kiosks, artistic creation proves to be the unexpected ally of endangered heritage. Journey into the heart of three spectacular salvations.
Century-old kiosks reclaim their splendor in Villers-Cotterêts
La maison du collectionneur
The story begins in 1900, amid the excitement of the Paris Universal Exhibition. Among the hundreds of ephemeral pavilions enchanting visitors, wrought-iron kiosks embodied the elegance of the Belle Époque. Designed to disappear after six months, some nevertheless escaped demolition: the town of Villers-Cotterêts purchased them and installed them in its public spaces. A century later, these metal structures—long neglected, rusted by time—found a second youth thanks to the Cité Internationale de la Langue française project. Integrated into the heritage reflection surrounding François I’s château, these fragile witnesses prove that an object destined for oblivion can become, through collective will, a marker of local identity. Cultural creation thus offers them an unhoped-for renaissance.
La maison du collectionneur
Ancienne base sous-marine allemande de Bordeaux ; Thierry Llansades ; Flickr
Bordeaux : a nazi bunker becomes a cathedral of light
Ancienne base sous-marine allemande de Bordeaux ; Thierry Llansades ; Flickr
In Bordeaux, the challenge was far more colossal. Imagine 600,000 cubic meters of reinforced concrete: the submarine base built by the German occupiers during World War II. Indestructible, dark, damp, this massive block embodied for decades a cumbersome memory the city didn’t know how to inhabit. Then came audacity: transforming this bunker into the Bassins de Lumières, the world’s largest digital art center. The gamble: using the stagnant water of the basins as a projection surface for monumental works—Klimt, Monet, Van Gogh now reflected in these improbable mirrors. Digital art, immaterial and luminous, achieves the feat of transfiguring the heaviness of concrete without erasing history. The memorial wasteland becomes a place of contemplation, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. A metamorphosis proving that even the darkest urban scars can be reborn through creation.
The Orient Express: phantom carriages but back on track
Orient-Express ; Epistola8 ; Wikimedia
Some wastelands are not buildings, but object-places. In 2015, historian Arthur Mettetal stumbled upon a disturbing YouTube video: mythical carriages from the Orient Express, those of the Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express dating from the 1920s-1930s, abandoned on the border between Poland and Belarus. Invaded by vegetation, these Art Deco marvels were literally rotting on forgotten sidings. The Accor group then undertook their rescue and complete restoration. Marquetry furniture, original light fixtures, precious fabrics: everything was meticulously recreated respecting the codes of the era. These carriages, destined for decomposition, regained their splendor thanks to goldsmith-level work combining traditional craftsmanship and contemporary vision. Soon to be put back into circulation, they embody proof that mobile heritage deserves as much attention as monuments.
Orient-Express ; Epistola8 ; Wikimedia
Whether steel, concrete, or precious wood, these witnesses of the past demonstrate that no wasteland is condemned to definitive oblivion. Cultural creation reveals itself as a formidable tool for urban and heritage resilience, capable of transforming eyesores into spaces of life and emotion. A lesson in hope for all places in decline.
- 1 Place Aristide Briand, 02600 Villers-Cotterêts, France
- Impasse Brown de Colstoun, 33300 Bordeaux, France
- 82 Rue Henri Farman, 92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
