The defined objectives which the contest organizers have wanted to emphasize are recalled here:

-Propose a project sold between 2200 and 2600 euros per square metre including 20% VAT,
-Be able to integrate the accommodations in the landscape, depending on the location,
-Respect for the environment
-Create sustainable and desirable accommodations,
-Optimize the land use and the existing networks,
-Add a reflection on the role of the private car.

The overall objective is to develop the center of Besançon’s attractiveness for the families via affordable accommodations sold 15 to 20% costlier compared to the current market price. By entering this contest, we wish to promote the possibility of living in a comfortable accommodation at an affordable cost. Which is why, even if economic matters are prominent in our choices, they must not be made to the detriment of the quality of life offered to the future inhabitant. Indeed, purchasing a real estate is a life project before it is a financial investment. The cost of the final operation must reflect the financial capabilities of the future inhabitants, while ensuring the highest-quality service possible. When investing in a real estate, the purchaser asks himself:

What evolutions are possible in this accommodation? Will it be able to adapt to my way of life within 10 to 15, 20 years? Can I create an additional room in the future? What for? Can the main room’s organization be reviewed? Will I purchase at a reasonable price? Is that a good investment? What will be the level of comfort of the real estate: noise and thermal insulation, expenses of maintenance, evolution of the building over time? How can the challenge of making a high-quality building at an affordable price be met?

Our project meets the following economic plan:
Cost of the operation 1 774 068 euros HT
Construction cost 1 415 euros /m² SHAB HT
Selling price 2 166 euros /m² HT – without land

The main issue of private homes is their strong space consumption, so they require more networks than collective accommodations. Purchase a town house would respond to the purchasers’ expectation of independence but would require a bigger budget because of the distance with the local services and the city center. Furthermore, located far from the centres of attraction, they form disconnected archipelagos that are profitable in terms of land but provide less meeting places, which is part of the expectations to build the city of the future.

This is the reason why we immediately thought of semi-collective housing, that allows to mutualize efforts, the convergence of needs and the ressource savings, and therefore to offer a certain comfort, avoiding the previous inherent issues of individual houses. We have been trying to take some altitude meanwhile not proposing the regulatory building but an adaptable proposal in various settings. This is indeed an evolving project.

5 major issues have been selected:

Intermediary durable housing

When someone acquires an accommodation, it is very often for a lifetime. The size of the family evolves, increases at first, and then decreases as the children leave the nest. And there is nothing more frustrating than not being able to adapt its accommodation to the changes in life. Our structure is made to offer comfort to evolving families. The acquirers will have the opportunity to make the volumes evolve depending on their ways of life: blended family, single-parent family, young entrepreneur, thirty-year-old single person and so on. The ground floor offers multiple possibilities to the host : convenience stores, boxable parking, additional accommodation in tense area. We soon will prefer the use of public transportation and shared cars but for now the use of private cars remains a ground for social exclusion.

We offer an affordable product to purchase and valuable at the resale

The general idea is a housing complex in which the interior layout is flexible and adaptable to anyone’s tastes. The 18 square meter balconies are associated to each accommodation and replace well a private garden. The ground floor offers dependences; cellar, bike parking, do-it-yourself local for example.

Social preservation

Our concept gathers 3 main functions in 1 place. Thanks to the ground floor premises, we can imagine a room for many uses, as the organisation of the building encourages people to share and interact; barbecues, handiwork, mutual aid. In the places we promote collective ingenuity in 5 ways that become keys for our society; economy of sharing; co-creation; inclusive economy; circular economy; makers movement. The idea is to propose a good balance between shared private housing, familial private housing and intimacy. The elected typology is the intermediary size of accommodation : T3.

Energy preservation

Our concept is local and global at the same time. The wooden parts for balconies and the facade will be made by a local carpenter, (less than 25 km around) who purchases the wood planks in local sawmills (less than 50 km around, in the Doubs), that use wood from Franche-Comté, in less than 120 km around. At the end, facades and flooring will be recycled when uninstalled. The roof will be composed by three kind of slates, depending on the local craftsmanship. The prefabrication in workshops of the facades including the chassis has many advantages : a clean and fast building site, perfect air proofing, good work conditions, a repeatable process then a rentable process, and a wall structure without inertie adapted to the climate. We respect two environmental labels – Effinergie plus and Biosourcé 1 that allow to promote living together education through environmental preservation and energy cost reduction.

This is a new concept, adapted to a way of living in mutation, for a good quality of life, and far from the slowing down linear economic system. We imagine a building today, that will be occupied in the future. This is an adaptable concept for urban or peri-urban area, based on meaningful, simple, reproducible, durable, local values. It is also evolutive and customizable, at an affordable price but full of potential. It is a innovating sales concept : a sales at an unfinished stage leaves a lot of options for the acquirer. We feel very enthusiastic about this concept that is simple, comes from collective ingenuity generously shared, and the idea will work out if followed by innovative, qualified and conscious people.