Projet Darwin

 

Projet Darwin is a project space to the South of the river Garonne in Bordeaux famous for its legal graffitti walls: colourful images creep across the sprawling derelict buildings – making the space one of the first lawful abandoned areas that I have visited… An incredible place to visit!! The area includes a big eco garden with eco friendly mobile homes for the volunteers to live in, an impressive indoor skating warehouse, as well as one for BMXers and roller bladers… There is also a great cafe/restaurant and there are frequently events for professional extreme sports people as well as markets selling hand-made products..  A great place to stumble upon and one of the best uses of a derelict area that I’ve seen, not quite lost in the rubble!

Cuesta Vinas derelict holiday camp, Valor, Spain.

This is definitely one of the weirdest places that I have stumbled across; and I am almost certain that I am the only person to ever photograph this eerie site, located about an hours’ hike down into the Cuesta Vinas valley.  What had looked like tents from a distance, turned out to be an abandoned holiday home park, which looked as though it had never, quite, been opened; yet some of the beds were made.  In one of the chalets the curtain had been torn up into tiny little bits and stuffed into a photo frame, in others everything was smashed up.  Although each chalet was laid out ready, the camp surely couldn’t have been used before as there were no pathways, or gardens around them; unless it was some kind of weird detention camp!

Whilst there it felt like a man with a wooden leg and a shotgun could creek out of the next door at any moment, ready to pry his way into your fears.

However, when I asked my host family about the place, they said that actually the land had been bought by a group of nuns who had plans to turn it into a holiday camp for children, however, they had run out of money and not asked permission and so it was shut down in the midst of it coming together.

Although, it is said, that occasionally a nun will stay in the house nearby overnight the rest of the plot lies eerily forgotten, void of meaning and lost in the rubble.

OAP’s Retreat, Hotel, Cuesta Vinas, Valor, Spain.

Cuesta Vinas is a valley close to Valor, a small village with a population close to 700 high in the Alpujarras.  This particular valley used to be popular particularly amongst Spanish old age pensioners, who, thanks to the government would get 1 weeks paid holiday per year.   Unfortunately, the reach of such pension plans is now much rarer; and thus, I found this hostel/motel-like building situated as you enter the windy path into the valley.  The grape vines, palm trees and empty pool hinted at the former glory of this retreat, that is now lost in the rubble.

Farm house, Cuesta Vinas, Valor, Spain.

Cuesta Vinas is a valley approximately 3 miles outside of the small white municipality that is Valor, high up in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  The valley used to be extremely prosperous with a number of family small holdings and even a hotel; however recent changes in the economic climate of Spain have left this valley dormant.  Out of the remaining buildings standing approximately half of them are now derelict.  This is one of the farmhouses; a building which obviously used to house a large and prosperous family, however all that is left now are crumbling walls and wire structures hinting that there’s much more to this place than that which meets the eye; as families’ struggles become lost in the rubble.

Pedro’s house, Cuesta Vinas, Valor, Spain.

This is Pedro’s house.  Aged 78 he walks for 40 minutes through the mountain tracks from the village of Valor to his crumbling family home in the small valley, Cuesta Vinas, every morning and back again every evening before sunset.  Whilst in his ‘work house’ he spends the days gathering almonds from outside, piling them onto the floor and slowly, by hand, husking each and every single one.  It was quite amazing to be allowed into his house to find heaps of almonds up to your ankles in every room and an array of different grouse, parakeets and other song birds in cages.  Although this goes against my morals, Pedro was one of the happiest OAPs i’ve ever met and I don’t blame him – with a house full of nuts and birds what could go wrong!  An amazing man and amazing story, not quite yet lost in the rubble.