Schools and libraries are among the latest public buildings in France to be designed with natural materials, following a French law informed by the sustainability aspirations of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Environmental Regulation 2020 (RE2020), which came into effect in 2022, aims to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of France’s new builds and promote the use of bio-based materials such as mass timber.
France’s former minister for cities and housing Julien Denormandie announced plans for the regulation in 2020, stating that the encouragement of bio-based construction materials was informed by the construction of the 2024 Paris Olympics complex.
Most of the venues at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris were existing or temporary structures, but the few newly built projects were made largely from low-carbon materials.
“We made this commitment for the Olympic Games,” Denormandie told newspaper Le Figaro in 2020. “There is no reason why what is possible for the Olympic Games should not be possible for the usual constructions.”
The RE2020 aligns with the country’s Sustainable City plan launched in 2009 and president Emmanuel Macron’s goal for France to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
In this roundup, we collect eight recently completed and upcoming public buildings in France made from natural and bio-based materials.
L’échappée, Herblay sur Seine, by Atelier WOA
Local practice Atelier WOA designed the L’échappée media library as an alternative to “institutional and cold” public buildings, with a mass-timber structure wrapped in a perforated aluminium screen.
The library’s north-facing facade was clad in stone and its south-facing facade features an outdoor wooden colonnade that opens onto a field.
Find out more about L’échappée ›
Aquatics Centre, Paris, by VenhoevenCS and Ateliers 2/3/4
The only permanent sports venue to be constructed for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Aquatics Centre was predominantly made from wood, including its 80-metre-long roof that swoops over a pool.
It was designed by Dutch studio VenhoevenCS and French studio Ateliers 2/3/4 to be multifunctional, hosting diving and synchronised swimming competitions during the Games and afterwards serving as a neighbourhood sports venue.
Find out more about the Aquatics Centre ›
University of Chicago John W Boyer Center, Paris, by Studio Gang
The University of Chicago campus in Paris is a mass timber building designed by US architecture firm Studio Gang and is set to be completed later this year as the firm’s first project in France.
Its facade will be decorated with fibreglass batons coated in Lutetian limestone, and its mass timber frame will be set atop a steel ground-floor structure that spans an existing concrete grid.
Find out more about the University of Chicago John W Boyer Center ›
Palais de l’Alma garden nursery, Paris, by Régis Roudil
Located on the grounds of Paris’s historic Palais de l’Alma, French practice Régis Roudil created a nursery made from bio-based materials, intending to create a serene environment.
Illuminated by raised skylights, the single-storey building has a timber structure stretching the length of the garden with two solid adobe forms enclosing each end.
Find out more about the Palais de l’Alma garden nursery ›
Jean Lamour Gymnasium, Nancy, by Studio Lada
The Jean Lamour Gymnasium in the French city of Nancy has a wooden structure made out of bolted beams. It was designed by local architecture practice Studio Lada to be easily dismantled and reused in other projects at the end of the gymnasium’s life.
In a nod to the exposed internal structure, its exterior was decorated in Douglas fir planks laid in a crisscrossing pattern.
École de Maringues, Maringues, by Studio Lada
Studio Lada also designed a wood-framed school in Maringues with classrooms arranged around two playgrounds, informed by the layout of monasteries.
White pine was used for the building’s structure and interior panelling, while beech and Douglas fir clad the exterior.
Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub, Toulouse, by BIG and A+ Architecture
Architecture studios BIG and A+ Architecture have unveiled their design for the mass-timber Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub, which is set to be built alongside the existing main station.
The transport hub will have a curved shape that rises from one to seven stories, topped with a folded rose-coloured brick roof.
Find out more about Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub ›
Headquarters of the National Forest Office, Maisons-Alfort, by Atelier WOA and Vincent Lavergne Architecture
For the new headquarters of French government agency National Forest Office (ONF), Atelier WOA worked with Vincent Lavergne Architecture to create a staggered mass-timber building clad in copper.
Aiming to use locally available materials, all of the wood used to construct the office building was sourced from ONF-managed French forests.
