Good practice:

La Lainiere's project house - First C2C building in Hauts-de-France

The project consisted in the construction of a project house of a wider project of 63M€. The house’s main objectives are to display the different phases of the project, to explain the history of the site and to welcome citizens, institutions and companies during different events.

The specificity of this project is to be the first building in France to follow a Cradle to Cradle approach. The house aims to not have any negative impact on its environnement and furthermore to create some profits for the inhabitants or the ecosystems. The construction aims to be able to be disassembled and reassembled on another site. All the materials used in the construction are non-toxic for the inhabitants and they are totally recyclable. The furnitures are shiftable in order to allow the rooms’ functions to be modified within the life of the building.

The energy of the building comes from two renewable sources, wood and solar. The water cycle is different than the one of a traditionnal construction and is linked to three different innovations : a rainwater storage and treatment system, waterless toilets and a biodiverity pond.

The project cost €900 000 used for the built of 500 m2, so about 1800€/m2. 8 actors were involved in the construction, two architects and some technical experts, whereas 7 organisations participated in the funding of the project.

The project managed to overcome the obstacles often linked to first projects and came to an end at the expected time without exceeding the budget allocated to it.

This project encountered some difficulties like the lack of local suppliers for C2C compatible products. For example, the wood produced in the region was using a special glue which did not fit with the C2C requirements. Therefore, the project imported the wood from Canada.

This project was the first Cradle to Cradle building in France. Now other regions in France are experimenting the principles of C2C construction be interested to understand the successes and the failures of this project in order to replicate it on their territory. Especially, this projects shows that it is necessary to help furniture or materials' producing companies in developing ecological products and getting the C2C certification.

This project also embodies the need to support the project leaders in their choice of materials and processes. It is not always the best solution to follow the principles of a label blindly without adapting it to the regional context and developing a whole life cycle analysis with several criteria.