Walltown Tales - The Heterotopian Pilgrimage Part 1 Project 2015 Matthieu Courtade Northumbria University Newcastle | UK The aim of the Walltown Tales is to rethink the role of architecture in our society and its ability to provoke thought. Using a familiar language, storytelling.The scheme manifests itself as a social experiment in the form of a community set within a ‘Heterotopian village’…Based on a narrative in which all dwellers can identify and interact with the architecture by immersing them in a unique environment where they can experience a different way of life during their residency.Walltown Tales uses the medium of storytelling to create a vivid architectural environment aiming to build a community within the site, addressing the themes of various psychological disorders through a series of cathartic architectural scenarios on their quest for their inner-selves.Based on philosophical concepts inspired by Michel Foucault’s notion of ‘Heterotopia’, the created narrative transposes the myth of Icarus as a metaphorical representation of the pilgrims within their own Tale.The architectural response follows the themes of ‘chapters’ illustrated in order to visually motivate the Walltown inhabitants to escape their reality.Walltown Tales negotiates a balance between man-made structure and the idea of ‘a fantastic world’, where its Inhabitants become the protagonist of both the story and architecture itself. Matthieu Courtade