Architects: Hugo Kaici & Felix de Montesquiou Location: Calais, France Photographs: Courtesy of Hugo Kaici & Felix de Montesquiou
The city of Calais, located at only 42km of the British coast, is the hottest spot of illegal migration in France. When Sarkozy closed the Sangatte immigrant center a year ago, we decided to react on the subject, in a very ironical and cynical way. This is when we decided to design an illegal immigration base.
As we always wanted to work on the German bunkers on the French coast, we decided to reverse the idea of the Atlantik Wall, built to prevent the allies army from getting in, to facilitate the migration of those wanting to reach England.
This idea is reinforced by the fact that the site we choose was one of the most fortified by the Germans.This is why the infrastructure is disguised as a abandoned bunker.
Our company, NEMO (for Northern Europe Migrants Organisation) is meant to undertake the business of illegal immigration from the Kurdish mafia, monopolizing the sector in a very brutal and inhuman way.
The architecture is minimal, the services provided in the infrastructure are only those we thought essential to a migrant in transit. But at the same time we tried to incorporate details to humanize this very brutal building
We wanted to play with the confusion between the true and the false; although the idea is totally mad and unrealistic, we tried to stage the project into reality. We used photo realistic renders, and an ultra commercial approach.
And we went even as far as depositing a building permit (that was immediately thrown back to our faces). This is why the program is at the same time minimal ( absolutely no superficial function) and grandiose (monumental structure in the cliffs of the North of France
In our very realistic / cynical / commercial approach, we simulated a business plan for this illegal company, and created a website to advertise the infrastructure, and to book your illegal immigration ticket.
