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Published on 18 October 2024

Written by Fabienne Errero

Dwelling with water in the Cévennes: the confluence of research and sketching

Fabienne Errero is a doctoral student at IMT Mines Alès, whose research focuses on the interactions between the environment and society in the Gardons river basin in Cévennes. For this trained architect, it was an opportunity to redefine the contours of her profession by factoring in the link between architecture and water. As part of her thesis, Fabienne Errero produced a series of “thought drawings”, enabling her to put forward ideas and build on her thinking. The text and illustrations in this article are taken from this work, created by the researcher.

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# IMT Mines Alès

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By Fabienne Errero, PhD student at IMT Mines-Alès:

This article presents a research/creation project carried out during my doctoral thesis at IMT Mines Alès. In addition to scientific work, as an architect and illustrator, I created a number of “thought drawings”, where the term “drawing” can encompass a variety of practices (doodles, observational drawings, sketches, etc.) to set visual thinking in motion.

Thought drawings express “a physical relationship to reality and the imaginary: where a writer feels and seeks to communicate the beauty of a spectacle or the meaning of an idea through verbal formulation, an architect perceives and expresses this beauty or meaning through the drawing” (Biasi, 2015, p981).
In this sense, drawing does more than transcribe my thoughts; it accompanies the construction of those thoughts, and thus contributes to my understanding of our relationship with the world and others.

Five thought drawings are presented here, each accompanied by a caption (in blue) that includes extracts from discussions with local stakeholders who took part in the workshops where I shared my work. I have also described my own vision and interpretation with a title and explanatory text.

This thought drawing could be titled “The Eye of the Researcher”. It is aimed at everyone: “residents, scientists, politicians and children”. It represents going beyond planetary limits “with the omnipresence of water” and the critical zone: “it’s like Earth seen by the Little Prince!”

“Our earthly home has its limits”

This thought drawing represents the Blue Planet, where water dominates and limits explode. The outline is dotted to illustrate the idea of exponential growth. However, from the perspective of geological eras, the transformations caused by humans represent a huge impact in a matter of seconds. 12 major axes symbolize the hands of a clock, indicating an urgent “tick-tock”, and the arrow says “you are here!”. The axes also represent nine planetary limits defined by the Sustainable Development Goals. At present, the 6th limit, that of the freshwater cycle, has been exceeded. On the first 9th of the circle, buildings in various forms, drawn out of scale, represent modernity.

Like the lines, the colors speak simply. The blue of the water, the turquoise of an ozone layer that turns yellowish green, laden with particles and tiny specks in suspension. Red, yellow, ocher, gray, pink and violet blend and spread, in a blur that stretches towards an unknown nothingness. These contrasting colors encroach upon our “blue circle”, eating away at it.

What will happen now to this planet that is being reshaped, recomposed and transformed?

This thought drawing could be titled “Paradox”. It represents the paradox of water and the construction of the landscape by juxtaposing these opposites. The colors reflect “too much and too little”, “blue and yellow, water and sun, red evokes suffering”, “green for life, terraces, crops”. The lines in the drawing “represent what makes up the Cévennes region”.

“Extremes”

The Cévennes region, where water can be both in excess and in shortage, is the setting for this research/creation project. This thought drawing depicts the structure of the landscape and traditional buildings of Cévennes. For example, there is a typical farmhouse, taller than it is wide, on which a “curtain” of rain falls. The river is shown in all its states, winding, wide, narrow and modified by human hands over time. It can be calm, offering a playful space for swimming, or overflowing, in which case caution is called for.

There are many bright colors, blending and mixing to show the heterogeneity of water, in all its many states and forms. Green can express a piece of fertile soil or a source of water. Red represents violent floods, like angry water that becomes a hazard. Yellow marks drought, scarcity and fire. Obviously, blue represents rain and abundant water. The study of socio-ecological trajectories highlights the resilience and capabilities shown by societies, but it remains difficult to make predictions for a particular area. This is why the thought drawing presents a blurred foreground suggesting “space and time” in the making, steeped in its past.

This thought drawing could be titled “Water Circulades“.
It symbolizes the different water cycles and “represents humanity’s ability to adapt”. “In spite of all these problems, humans go on with their lives: strolling, playing, working… and modifying the water cycles to have this resource on tap”.

“The composition of the worlds of water”

Scientific knowledge is structured and shaped like layers, building on each other. Numerous forms of knowledge about water exist and intersect in the study of multiple and varied environments: urban, rural, isolated, etc. The water cycle is complex and hybrid, and the activity of water, coupled with that of humans, creates socio-hydrological trajectories. There are also little figures depicted in their “bubble” or in the landscape. They are scientists in a variety of fields (multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary), whose field of research is water.

The different colors represent the categories of water as a resource, living environment, risk, or vector for substances and sediment. A tap concludes and surrounds the drawing, like a big question mark, from which a tiny drop of water emerges, highlighting the current problem of water scarcity.

This thought drawing could be titled “The Unbearable Polymorphy of Water in Cévennes“. “You can tell that the image is in Cévennes through certain clues: mountains, pine trees, the headframe of a coal mine, the cypress trees in Protestant cemeteries, a factory, etc., and water everywhere.” The drawing represents “the importance of water in life cycles and the joy of the residents receiving the benefits of water”.

“Where to land in Cévennes”

This thought drawing introduces the definition and characterization of the upper river basin of the Gardon. On the vertical axis, trajectories are established at a particular time, or rather times (the time of water cycles, the time of history, the time of regional planning laws, etc.) and on the horizontal axis, trajectories are also established in space. In the center, a horizontal line with roughly sketched buildings marks the boundary of the upper Gardon river basin, representing the transition from the plains to the mid-mountain territory.

This thought drawing illustrates just a few elements of the current environment around this Cévennes boundary (individual housing, mixed housing, activities, heritage, etc.). Quotes (taken from interviews) question the very definition of water and guide the viewer’s gaze along arrows pointing in different directions. The fluid forms represent the dynamics of socio-hydrological interactions under different timelines. They are transformed into trajectories by the scales that frame them, without constraining them. Four frames are dotted throughout the Cévennes mountains: they represent and position relevant space-time reference points that are potential landing spots to study these trajectories in this vast territory.

This thought drawing could be titled “Water Tells our Story”. It “is open to all with its richness and poetry”, it “expresses the lack of water in time and space”: “the colors remind us of the seasons”, “water sketches a territory, sometimes leaving major marks”. “In this drawing, everything jumps out of the frame (even the drawing itself), the chest is open, the sheets are blank, the door is open, there’s a lot of hope.”

“All these little stories of water”

This thought drawing illustrates a few stories of water told to me by the residents of Saint Germain de Calberte. Nowadays, scientists come to knock on local people’s doors, listening to what they have to say and gaining their knowledge. This place of study, like a “refuge”, has been meticulously chosen, which is why I used a black frame in reference to the previous thought drawing.

Featuring some excerpts from quotes once again, water is also shown in forms other than through functional, quantified ways of thinking. It is more poetic, opening up multiple perspectives. Stepping through a warm and welcoming wooden doorway, we enter a place made up of small stories of life and knowledge. The hues and colors are different from the other drawings, less primary, more nuanced, to show yet more facets of water. In addition to qualitative data, thought drawings can include quantitative data in the shape of their lines, creating an intersectional object that sparks exchange and discussion.

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