A pig fattening project puts in risk Boisbuchet

Domaine de Boisbuchet is an international research center for design and architecture. The campus is surrounded by 150 hectares of protected nature in Lessac, southwest France and comprises an architectural park of historic and contemporary buildings.

On June 26, 2020, the Mayor of Lessac, our commune, informed us by telephone that the day before he had authorized the building permit for a pig-fattening plant on a plot of land directly adjacent to the central Boisbuchet area. This facility would be located only 170 meters away from our campus. Neither the Mayor nor the developers informed us of this project beforehand. At no point were the interests of Domaine de Boisbuchet, which has engaged in cultural and human exchanges for over 30 years, taken into account.

Since 1990 on, thousands of students and professionals including leading creatives such as Shigeru Ban, Matali Crasset, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Lina Gothmeh or Alvaro Siza came to Boisbuchet, making this place unique in the world of architecture and design, ecology and sustainability. But today, despite our successful efforts to face the dramatic consequences of the Corona crisis, we are on the verge of giving up.

If the pig-fattening facility is built, it will be the end of Boisbuchet as we know it.

All of our private funds and continuous support from the public sector have been invested in Boisbuchet´s research center for design, architecture, and nature. We are today close to becoming a foundation which shall ensure the sustainability of our work. All these efforts would be lost if the construction of this pig farm goes ahead. If the project is not stopped while there is still time, we will have failed in our major project to make Charente an international design hub where the seeds of the upcoming design are planted every summer.

Not only does a pig farm not correspond to the philosophy of Boisbuchet, it will also produce visceral and olfactory nuisances scaring off our visitors. We have started a lawsuit, and after an initial defeat there is little chance that we will win this action. We have one possibility left and this is a petition addressed to the Minister of Culture with the request to stop the construction. It is our final chance, but this petition will only be heard if as many of us sign this petition.

This is our only chance – the petition!

The Boisbuchet team