Inhabit The World

Philippe goes to meet the Hakka people, builders of real fortresses: the Tulou. These circular buildings from a long tradition, are the symbols of a community way of life. They are now of great interest to tourists and architects around the world. Philippe meets Hong Jun and his wife Su Zhou and discovers the Tulou in which they live, a unique community habitat that has 140 dwellings.

Iquitos in Peru, lost in the Amazon rainforest, is the largest city in the world with no road access. In the Belén neighbourhood, invaded by water several months a year, Philippe is interested in the relationship that city dwellers have with the forest and the Amazon. The neighbourhood presents major development challenges. With tenacity and inventiveness, the inhabitants of Belén shape their habitat.

It is not on the shores of Lake Titicaca, in the Andes Mountains, that the Uros live, but in the very middle of the lake. Philippe Simay meets those who live on artificial islands, made of totora - the local rush - and whose main daily activity has always been the repair of their islands. Isolated from the rest of civilisation, Philippe experiences a suspended time where the habitat fits perfectly into the natural setting.

Philippe immerses himself in Tokyo, a fascinating urban complex in many ways. The city appears to him out of size, modern and labyrinthine with its intervening spaces that are drawn between each building. Residents are doubling their imagination in the face of the lack of space generated by the strong demographic pressure and many are looking at the concept of "micro architecture", living in smaller and smaller spaces!

In Kyoto, the machiyas, artisan houses built from the 17th century, have been the subject of a renewed interest for several years. Philippe wants to know who chooses to live in these traditional residences and why? Philippe is welcomed by Keiichiro who has lived for 3 years in a machiya that he had restored in pure respect of his original style. With him, Philippe discovers a true ancestral art of living.

In the Netherlands, half of the country is below sea level and a third is covered by canals, lakes and rivers. The Dutch have always been inventive to gain ground from the sea. Philippe Simay meets those who are now adapting to a new situation: the rise in the water level, due to global warming, which threatens to flood the country. The solution envisaged? No longer repel the water, but live on the water thanks to the floating houses.

Reintroducing nature in the city is Milan's gamble, with these 4% of green spaces. Two plant towers have been built there: the towers of the Bosco Verticale, along which there are 800 trees, 4,500 shrubs and 15,000 plants spread over 400 terraces. A unique technological and ecological feat that Philippe wants to discover. Are these towers a possible answer to the challenges facing contemporary cities?

In Papua, in the Indonesian archipelago, in the heart of a huge virgin forest live, in a very isolated way, the Korowaï people. They live in houses that they build at the top of huge trees, using a know-how transmitted from father to son. Philippe Simay meets Marcus. With him, he discovers the link that unites the Korowaï to the forest that surrounds them, their true home, both nourishing and serving as a refuge.

On the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia live the Torajas, an ethnic group very attached to its traditions, which are expressed in a type of habitat unique in the world: the Tongkonan, or "the place where we take place". At the heart of the life of the Torajas, it is a reflection of their vision of the world. Alongside Tingting, a chief in charge of watching over the Tongkonan, Philippe discovered these dwellings serving as houses for both the living and the dead.

The Vorarlberg valley in Austria, populated by about 380,000 inhabitants, has, for three decades, managed to reconcile traditional housing, composed of farms and wooden houses, with contemporary architecture, to the point of becoming a reference in terms of ecology and sustainable development. Philippe wants to understand how his inhabitants have integrated environmental and architectural concerns into their daily lives.

In Greece, in the Peloponnese, is the Agiou Nikolaou Varson monastery, perched at 1100 metres above sea level and built in the 11th century. Six monks still live there today who offer hospitality to Philippe. He discovers a habitat that is organised between community life and spiritual asceticism. Immersed in the daily life of these monks, he has the unprecedented experience of a way of living both retired from society and yet open to others and the world.

In the northeast of India, Varanasi, located on the Ganges, is the holy city of India par excellence, with nearly one million pilgrims a year. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and it is now experiencing strong demographic growth that is pushing it to modernise. Ojay Ratan Banerjee, a specialist in Varanasi, introduces Philippe to a city of contrasts, eternal for believers, but whose architectural heritage is threatened.

The village of Pongin is located in the far northeast of India, in the heart of a huge forest. This is where the Adi, the "men of the hills", live; an ethnic group scattered in the Himalayan region. With Oni, Philippe Simay discovers a people whose habitat and lifestyle revolve around a local material, bamboo, with often unknown virtues. Here, bamboo is used not only to build the basic structure of the houses, but also the walls and furniture of the houses. Residents recycle the elements over time to keep their homes in condition.

In the south of Burkina Faso, is Tiébélé, a village where the royal court of the Kasséna is located, with a very particular architecture. Its boxes of land, whose shapes correspond to different functions, painted and adorned with many symbolic motifs, form a rich ensemble of meaning. Alongside Cyril, one of the princes of Tiébélé, Philippe discovers a people for whom architecture is, above all, building together.

The Vestmann Islands, in the south of Iceland, are subjected to a unique volcanic activity in the world. Heimaey is the only one in the archipelago to be populated, with 4,500 inhabitants living in the midst of unstable and destructive elements. Philippe meets Throstur, who grew up on the island of Heimaey. With him, he discovers that living on this island is not living in a house but inhabiting nature, investing it in its entirety.

In the historic district of Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, there is a unique habitat: the tube houses. Characterised by the narrowness of their facades, they serve both as a home and a shop, and have become over time a symbol of the values of Vietnamese society. With the residents of the neighbourhood, Philippe Simay discovers the rich history and social role behind the narrow facades of these surprising houses.

The village of Kandovan is perched at 2300 metres above sea level, in Iranian Azerbaijan. There, one-million-year-old volcanic eruptions formed stone cones, that are dug and shaped to form the houses of this troglodyte village. Ahad, who has always lived in Kandovan, presents his village to Philippe... At his side, Philippe discovers how the inhabitants live in the heart of the mountain, from the rock...

The village of Masouleh, in Iran, is located more than 1000 metres above sea level in the Elbourz chain. Its architecture is unique: built on a difference in height of 100 metres, all its roofs, connected to each other, are pedestrian spaces that resemble alleys or courtyards. Shoja helps Philippe discover his passion for his village, which offers the vision of a lifestyle based on sharing and the will to live together.

Louisiana, southern United States. Where the Mississippi flows into the Atlantic is the land of bayous. The region, already subjected to hurricanes and river floods, is now facing a gradual subsidence of the soil and could lose up to 30% of its territory before the end of the century. Philippe Simay goes to meet those who have chosen to stay and perpetuate the memory of a land with a singular cultural and landscape identity.

Granada, Andalusia, extreme south of Spain. This city, with a rich past, still retains traces of Moorish architecture, especially in the Albaicin district. Philippe Simay discovers an inward-looking habitat, where we protect ourselves from the ardour of the sun and in which water is omnipresent. The residents of the neighbourhood welcome him into their home and reveal to him the extraordinary patios and the carmenes, these gardens and orchards sheltered from view. The architecture of the Albaicin has a dimension that is above all sensitive rather than functional.