“Off-site construction will be decarbonized or it won’t be!”

“Off-site construction will be decarbonized or it won’t be!“ This was the title of the conference and its stated ambition that was held in the Senate on Monday, November 6, 2023, on the occasion of which the Architects Syndicate spoke to parliamentarians, representatives of ministries and professionals in the sector, to promote quality architecture in the service of environmental transformation.

At the invitation of Senator Daniel Salmon, players in the bio-source sectors (Fibois France, the French Straw Building Network and Construire en Hemp) organized this event in order to highlight the close relationship between bio-sourced materials and off-site construction.

In the introduction, Valerie Fleccouto, Vice-President of the National Council of the Order, emphasized that if off-site construction is a way to deal with climate challenges in construction, it must remain first and foremost a process in the service of architecture and history. Urban quality.

The off-site process should be an opportunity to develop local solutions adapted to the regional context.

During the roundtable on “The link between architectural quality and off-site ecological construction”, Christophe Millet, National Advisor of the Order, pointed out in the preamble that if architectural quality is uncompromising, it cannot be expressed without taking into account spatial quality, ecological transformation and local economy.

The use of local resources and the knowledge of companies operating in their territories is one of the components of acceptable architecture that constitutes a desirable living environment. However, the standardization of above-ground construction processes with high productivity, and thus on a large scale, only resulted in a form of landscape standardization that led to the stigmatization of certain areas.

Off-site construction manufacturers must question their production metrics to incorporate architectural narrative into the pre-project design phase and adapt to the uniqueness of architects’ work.

Christophe Millet also emphasized that innovation is hampered by the difficulty of accessing ATEX. This idea was addressed by several speakers and was a source of discussion on how best to approach issues of insurance and evaluation of technologies and materials.

Finally, off-site construction questions the involvement of project management resources in the project construction process. It leads to a strong involvement of these elements in the design phase and to a fundamental presence of the architect in the construction phase.

Guillaume Gontard, President of the Environment, Solidarity and Territories group in the Senate, concluded the discussions by calling the Senate which will serve as a temple of straw, hemp and local bio-sourced sectors. He echoed the call of the Architects Syndicate by calling for a reduction in the value-added tax on environmental materials.

>> Video clips

Introduction – Off-Site Construction Conference November 6, 2023

Is environmental and quality off-site construction possible?

>> Find all event replay videos on the event’s YouTube page