As part of the Industrial Landscape programme led with the Lorraine Regional Nature Park, the Pays des Étangs Community of Communes and different local associations wished to continue their reflection on the industrial memory of the Bataville site in Moselle. After an initial commission awarded to Lani Maestro, whose work Limen was inaugurated in 2014, Notre Atelier Commun was commissioned to develop a guide plan.

How can Bataville survive without Bata? Aside from the necessary reconversion of the old working class city, a whole model of society needs to be reinvented. Aware that the site’s evolution had to be based on a finer understanding of values inherited from the past and on new uses, the Patrons wanted to conduct a prefigurative study to secure the transition of patrimony between past, present and future.

Notre Atelier Commun’s response first took shape during the working process. Convinced that one must live in a place to understand it, and that one cannot imagine a future at a distance without the residents and the territory’s protagonists, NAC settled in Bataville for a year and initiated about ten public meetings with the Fairground University between October 2015 and September 2016.

The guide plan, submitted in September 2016, builds on these discussions to propose three major directions: making Bataville a space of freedom and innovation favourable to new emerging systems; creating connections between people (newcomers, residents, former employees) and between activities so that the site becomes a common, shared space; reclaiming know-how by reconnecting with the craft industry and promoting small-scale production.

Plan guide plan’s conclusion et des mains

Financial Partners: Natural regional Parc / Lorraine, communauté de communes du Pays des étangs, la Fondation de France / New Patrons Program