Paying tribute to the watchmaking heritage of the area, this clock-shaped wood installation is located in the Vallée de Joux valley in the center of the Swiss countryside for the cycling race Tour de France. Designed by Swiss designer Fabien Roy, the structure is dubbed Ephemeral Ring due to the temporary nature of the installation. Roy says that he wanted a structure that could easily be repurposed to avoid wasting material. The installation will be dismantled later on and reused by a local carpentry company for the making of wooden cladding facades and ventilated roof substructures. Read SURFACES REPORTER (SR)’s complete report below:
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Nestled in the grassy landscape of Vallée de Joux valley, the structure looks like a clock when seen from the sky. A non-profit organisation Vallée de Joux Tourisme has assigned the design work to Fabien Roy to design a project that will mark the Tour de France.
The idea was to promote the natural, cultural and industrial heritage of the religion in Switzerland- which is famous as the name of Watch Valley around the world." As part of the Tour de France cycling race in the Joux Valley, the tourist office wanted to mark the event by setting up an ephemeral installation visible from the sky,” explained Roy.
Spruce Slats Making Up The Ring
The ephemeral ring that is designed to look like a clock is wrapped by spruce wooden slats and screws. The architect used 20 cubic meters of wood to design the structure measuring five kilometers of wooden sticks. A local carpentry company combined each 50 by 60-millimeter spruce wooden slat into the ring with the help of lumberjacks. While the two lines of wood forming the revolving pointers lie in the center of the installation creating the watch face.
The ring is around four meters tall with a circumference of 50 meters. The structure is designed to mark the Tour de France, a cycling race that people would also watch on television.
The people can enjoy the structure while sitting at their home through the birdseye perspective, thanks to helicopters filming the cycling race from the skies.
Home To Famous Swiss Watch Brands
The breathtaking location- ‘Vallée de Joux- is the home to the world-famous Swiss watch brands including Breguet, Blancpain, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Dubois Dépraz. Further, it is also home to the watch brand Audemars Piguet, which has a dedicated watchmaking museum in the same location crafted in a spiral by architecture firm BIG.
"The idea was to associate the watchmaking universe with the world of forestry, which represents the other pole of activity in the valley," explained Roy.
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Installation Will Be Dismantled and Reused
The structure will be disassembled and reused by a local carpentry company later on to create wooden cladding facades and ventilated roof substructures." In my opinion, such an ephemeral installation only makes sense if it does not generate waste," the designer said. "Today we can no longer afford to waste large quantities of materials to satisfy ephemeral events."
People will be able to walk through the installation on a walkway that directs them to an exhibition where works by local illustrator Jaques Vallotton will be displayed.
Project Details
Architect/ Designer: Fabien Roy
Type: Ephemeral Architecture
Client: Vallée de Joux Tourismea
Design Year: 2022
Photo Courtesy: Fabien Roy
Source: https://fabienroy.com/
About the Architect
Born in 1984, Fabien Roy is a swiss designer and architect originally from and living in the Swiss Jura Mountains. In 2006, he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from The School of Engineering and Architecture of Fribourg (Switzerland), and in 2020 with a master’s degree in product design at ECAL University of Art and Design Lausanne (Switzerland).
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