FROM DO-IT-YOURSELF TO THE WORKSHOP, OR THE TRANSFORMATION SPACE IN FRANCE

Abstract

Within the context of the current pandemic, France, like many other countries, is hoping to promote new ways of inhabiting domestic space after COVID. However, certain models seem to have emerged from a slower process of transformation. Herein we will examine how do-it-yourself work (DIY), beyond just a marginal activity, may be indicative of paradigm changes in French society. To achieve this, the essay describes the characteristics and changes in DIY across time in France based on the momentum created by the social sciences in the 1970s. It explains how DIY is able to generate changes in the people’s behavior and thus offer the possibility of a new model for the economy and production. However, in order to be able to play a role in both twenty-first century housing and the contemporary city, action taken on matter must be spatially legitimized. Therefore, we also discuss the historical role of homo faber, along with his workshop, in the construction of la cité . Last of all, parallels are drawn between the renewed appreciation of DIY and the role of the grand bricoleur, or large-scale DIY practitioner, already played by the latest generations of French architects.

Thus, DIY is viewed as a way of “being in the world” that will lead to the construction of a new economic and productive model during an era of ecological transition.