The DOGA award for design and architecture is given to established businesses that create value through “outstanding use of design and architecture” and we at Reiulf Ramstad Architects are proud to announce that "Chemin des Carrières", the cycling and hiking trail between Rosheim and Saint-Nabor in Alsace France, has been awarded in the field of design and architecture this year!
The project transforms the old railway line between the villages of Rosheim and Saint-Nabor in Alsace into a walking and cycling path that brings the various villages back together after the railway line that bound the villages was closed many years ago. The road marks itself as a rolling line in the French Alsace area's landscape, winding its way between villages, vineyards, and forests. Along the 11 km long trail you will find a story divided into five chapters. Five stops, as a tribute to the original railway, where specially designed elements make points along the way and where the railway tracks merge with steel pavilions, vantage points and installations.
After the closure of the railway, the car has taken over as a means of transport and made fewer people move in the area's beautiful nature on foot and by bike. The route has also been a lack of link in the continuous cycle network throughout Europe, which has caused the villages to fall outside of the tourist industry. The project therefore sought to reconnect the five villages, generating new relationships and public spaces that can be used by locals and tourists alike. The aim was to create a sustainable, safe, health-promoting, and social cycling and walkway. Through the Chemin des Carrières project, we wanted to show how architecture can help reverse the trend in urbanization, and instead make rural areas attractive by emphasizing and revitalizing the inherent characteristics of the places and where locals have gained strengthened location identity and commitment. Along the Chemin des Carrières we have designed information signs to help the public get to know the local flora and fauna, and bee hotels and birdhouses have been created to promote biodiversity.
To honor the region's history, the train tracks have been preserved and incorporated into the new route. The construction and steel cladding in the pavilions and furniture in Corten steel is a nod to the old train tracks, giving the architecture a beautiful reddish color. The material extends the life cycle of pavilions compared to ordinary steel and requires minimal maintenance. We saw the opportunity to finance parts of the project by selling the parts from the railway that we did not need to a local factory, which also processed the material we would use in the execution. We believe that a sustainable city is both climate-friendly and provides fertile ground for a circular economy. Reuse and close cooperation with the local were therefore a matter of course. Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter’s projects have always been linked to the consideration of landscape and context, participation, and dialogue. In addition to the completed project itself, this process has been a big part of the local success. The project has been very well received, and at the official opening of "Le Chemin des Carrières" in October 2019, the local community from all surrounding villages gathered to celebrate their new attraction, and in good company with proud architects and collaborators. "Le Chemin des Carrières" has already yielded economic, social and climate-friendly gains for the five villages
The project itself is the result of victory in an invited competition back in 2016 and has been developed together with the French landscape architecture firm Parenthèse Paysage.
About the DOGA award: the DOGA Award for design and architecture (originally "Merket for god design") is an annual competition for Norwegian practices and practitioners that “excels through outstanding use of design and architecture”. The prize has been awarded since 1965, and the projects that receive it are role models that show how good use of design and architecture creates important values for society.
As early as 1998, Reiulf Ramstad won Norsk Forms (Doga) award for young aspiring designers, and in 2015 the "Jacob Prize" which has been awarded since 1957 and is the "most highly valued award” DOGA gives to designers and architects who “move boundaries and carry the subjects further".
The Article, Doga.no
