Shelter by Clementine Chambon

By (author): Clementine Chambon

Title: Shelter

Subtitle: Beach tales, winter storm stories, and design

Blurb/Shorttext:

The rain persists over the dunes of Espiguette. It’s the winter of 2022 and together with photographer Thomas Heydon, we embark on the exploration of driftwood that has washed ashore following severe storms and floods in the Rhône Valley. This is how the Shelter project unfolds.

Through Thomas's lens, the trunks and branches reveal themselves like marine mammals stranded in the foam. On my part, I make the decision to construct a refuge—a haven vibrant with colors, visible from afar, a tiny lighthouse resting on the sand, available to all beachgoers. Over two summer seasons, I utilized these driftwoods to narrate the story of life. The life of the dune, a resilient ecosystem safeguarding our homes against the relentless sea, demanding our preservation. And the life of the forests, where trees uprooted by the storm Gloria traversed rivers to reappear, sculpted by the waves, on the beaches of the Mediterranean coast. A providential material, as the Inuits, the pioneers in using driftwood to shape their world, used to say.

Shelter embodies these tales of the beach, winter storms, and the creation of a utopia made possible through the Mondes Nouveaux program. It is a collaborative effort shaped by hands and voices, and to all those who shared life moments, built castles, elaborated dreams, spent nights under the stars—each person has molded it with their own story and experiences, as I have been told.

ISBN: 978-87-7620-152-4

Book language: English/French

Publishing house: Snap Collective

Website: www.snap-collective.com

Editorial Assistant: Anna Romanovich

Designer: Tea Jagodic 

Published on: 4/8/2024

Category: Art

Price (€): 89

Keywords: design, sustainable design, shelter, dune ecosystem, hut, landscape installation, driftwood, beach ecosystem, climate change, design process