A community-based third place committed to transitions

Le Grain de la Vallée
Area: 550 m² total
Location: Marseille, 11th Arrondissement

The Founding
Concept Housed in a former school in the city of Marseille, Le GRAIN de la Vallée is a community-driven “third place” committed to social and environmental transitions—a collective effort to care for the living world and assert its role as a key player in these transitions within the Huveaune Valley region.

As “laboratories of the future,” Le GRAIN de la Vallée proposes new practices and new ways of doing things to build a more just and sustainable society

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GRAIN de la Vallée is committed to a comprehensive, participatory, and collaborative approach that fosters civic engagement as part of a quest for societal impact.

Here, we are reinventing our models of representation, consumption, mediation, and creation by drawing on methods of collective intelligence and the blending of complementary skills.

GRAIN de la Vallée is:

• - Gardens - Biodiversity and Urban Agriculture => an experimental, fun, and educational hub for biodiversity; an agroecological flower farm; and an urban micro-nursery
• - Culture => affiliated artists, regular residencies, workshops, and events to foster individual and collective empowerment through the arts and to champion art as a tool for transforming the local community
• - Sustainable Food => a farm-to-table grocery store with very short supply chains, a monthly artisans’ and creators’ market, and a local and sustainable approach
• 12 permanent residents running their businesses on-site, supported by 30 regular volunteers and 70 members

Le GRAIN de la Vallée is a place open to all, a place built by and for its users, a place that comes to life over time through the engaged community that forms around it—a vibrant space dedicated to caring for all living things.