Ashley Vale

Would you like to visit Ashley Vale? It is a little valley hidden in an outer district of Bristol. You can find it behind a tunnel under a railway. It is surrounded by hills, and woods.

And in this vale is a group of self built houses. In the late 1990s, a group of locals decided to purchase an ex industrial site, and to build their own homes, in a scheme of community, participation, and eco-friendly building. They wanted their area of life to fit to themselves.

[For further information about Ashley Vale project, see an article about it, or even their own website.]

When you walk around, you can see that every single house is different from the next one. Except a few bungalows and two builds of flats and workshops, each house is unique, drawn following the will of their owner. It gives a area of mixed architecture, where you feel the personnality of the inhabitants. Compared to the rest of the city, with the rows of similar houses, it nearly seems out of place.

I really love that kind of project, so personal, so alive.

Here are some of the houses... 

 

This pre-existing office building was transformed into flats and workshops, and a community centre, which hosts many local and cultural activities.

 

This one looks like it was sculpted in a tree, and shaped in clay.

Next to that site, to increase the impression that you've been transported in another place, is a city farm. Sheeps, pigs, ducks, organic vegetables and herbs, personal gardens for inhabitants of Bristol, and an exceptional tearoom, drawn by the same architect than the house above...