With The Tour of the materials of an ecological housethe CAUE Rhône Métropole* is hosting a fascinating exhibition that questions our relationship to construction and the environment!
Young and engaged in reflection on the meaning of their profession, the architects of the Anatomies d’Architecture cooperative present an exhibition explaining the renovation of a traditional Norman farmhouse which they carried out with an exceptional ecological and environmental approach: 0% of concrete, 0% plastic membranes, 100% ultra local materials.
Currently in the construction sector, materials emit a lot of CO2thus in France cement is responsible for 3% of these emissions.
This project was therefore designed as an educational laboratory where the aim is to relearn architecture, reuse lost or existing materials, to promote local craftsmen and their know-how, by choosing materials which come as much as possible from 100 kilometers around the site and the least transformed.
Very well documented, the exhibition takes place in the form of a huge comic book with explanatory texts, figures, portraits of craftsmen to alert us to the environmental, social, economic and heritage disaster of construction as it is. practiced in France and around the world.
Eight materials used are presented on panels with a different color around the same four markers: the Source of a material, its transformation, its implementation on the site and the way in which it was integrated into the project.
Samples are placed in the center of the exhibition in order to better understand them by sight and touch.
Eight materials used to renovate the farmhouse
Eight materials are explained to visitors: the reuse of there terracotta brick (3,000 were cleaned and reused out of the 35,000 base), both efficient thanks to its thermal inertia but also a Source of comfort and energy savings; the locust treea tree whose rot-proof wood allows foundations to be made to replace cement with wooden piles (viable for 500 years) which do not pollute the soil and can be transformed into compost; Douglas fir for the wooden frame of the farmhouse; hemp for insulation with its sustainable and chemical-free cultivation method, unlike the highly polluting polyurethane and polystyrene integrated into current insulation systems.
The craftsman represented in the comic strip designed his own system for throwing hemp wool. Then comes a construction technique where Earth mixed with hay and branches allow the development of distaffs to make a floor on which a parquet floor is placed and the chestnut with which the exterior cladding of the house is made.
Here too, the designer illustrates the craftsman who, to make them, invented a machine with old bobbins, the old manufacturing technique no longer meeting current safety standards.
At the end of the exhibition, two panels illustrate the reuse of bottle caps. cork crushed and pulverized to create rot-proof insulation one meter high and prevent capillary rise then the Oak reuse (furniture, doors, etc.) with which wooden tiles were made one by one before being placed on the floor.
Very educational, the exhibition is aimed at all audiences and truly demonstrates that environmental issues are linked to urban architecture. The architects claim here not to reinvent but rather an approach low tech and virtuous at the same time as a human adventure and a reflection on our society.
Not to be missed on June 8, as part of the Lyon BD festival, the meeting with Félix Roudier, designer of the exhibition!
The Tour of the materials of an ecological house – Anatomies of Architecture – Until November 28 at CAUE Rhône Métropole. FREE ENTRANCE.
*CAUE Rhône Métropole: Rhône Métropole architecture, town planning and environment council
