International audienceTo suggest some answers to questions about the future of the living environment of human settlements in rural areas, this article will discuss intensification assumptions adapted to new or rehabilitated housing projects in the rural commune of Ambert, administered by the department of Puy-de-Dôme, France. These assumptions are derived from shared education between the two Higher National schools of Architecture in Lyon (an area of study called master AA & CC “Architecture, Ambiances and Constructive Cultures”) and Grenoble (an area of study called master A & CC “Architecture and Constructive Cultures”). They are based on the research and partnership of two laboratories of the Grenoble architectural school, the research unit AE & CC (Architecture, Environment and Constructive Cultures, Labex MCC ) and the research unit CRESSON (Centre for Research on the SOUND SPACE and the urban environment, UMR CNRS 1563 Architecture, Ambiance and Urbanity) . This collaboration foreshadows the construction of a solar powered habitat in Ambert, showing an approach centered on pleasant surroundings and local building habits

Balaÿ, Olivier

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On the ground...and into the air
Olivier Balaÿ
To cite this version:
Olivier Balaÿ. On the ground...and into the air: Research and development for an eco-friendly habitat
on rural commune named Ambert. Architectural Research Addressing Societal Challenges, Proceed-
ings of the 10th EAAE/ARCC International Conference, Jun 2016, Lisbonne, Portugal. ￿hal-02164498￿
THE HABITAT OF THE FUTURE, CAN IT 
REMAIN LOW-RISE? 
Our world is changing radically. The effective 
spatial awareness of sustainable development issues 
due to recent crises (social, environmental, financial 
and energy) leads to other approaches to habitat, 
land, social mix and tools to be used within the 
framework to be built. First of all, in rural areas, this 
finding prompts the building of an ecological, 
responsible and economical habitat, attractive for 
newcomers, reflecting new surroundings in rural 
conditions, integrating energy issues and ecological 
thinking, as well as on the level of materials 
employed and the production line of the components 
used. 
Secondly, and in response to the request of some 
rural municipalities, the need for density, to avoid 
urban sprawl, invites us to restore value to all open 
spaces, on the ground and into the air. The designer 
is then asked to imagine buildings and environments 
that combine infrastructure, landscape, architecture, 
events, society, customs, cultures, energy and local 
resources. Thirdly, reflection across the territory 
implies rethinking the inhabitants’ logistics mode. 
We must rethink both the modes of management of 
natural resources essential for life (such as water), 
and agricultural space management methods, 
transport methods between food production areas 
and consumption areas, and modes of travel between 
different living areas. A new symbiosis must emerge 
between agriculture, mechanics and architecture by 
combining, in a more organic way, available and 
vacant lands, vehicles, housing and the working 
place. 
Overall, this awareness challenges us about our 
lifestyles (increase or decrease?) and our major 
societal choices (centralized or decentralized?). At 
the political level and at the individual level, 
however, it is extremely difficult to make these 
choices without concrete indications of the 
opportunities available to us. These decisions can 
obviously not be taken solely on the basis of 
theoretical reasoning. Therefore, to gain the support 
of the majority and become effective, and more 
efficient, these choices should be informed by 
research and experiments carried out together on the 
constructive aspects and living ambiances of 
tomorrow's society, which bring quantified and 
tangible evidence of the feasibility or consistency of 
the proposals. 
On the ground… and into the air 
Research & Development for an eco-friendly habitat on rural Commune named Ambert 
 
Olivier Balaÿ 
Architect is practising since 1982, Partner from 1994 to 2014 (SARL Balaÿ, Boinay, Pierron), director of 
CASA (Architecture / Sound Environment) since 2015.  
Researcher at CRESSON, architectural and Urban Research Laboratory UMR CNRS 1563 (Architecture, 
Ambiance, Urbanity) since 1983, doctor in urban planning and development, (1992, Qualified Research 
Director (2002). 
TPCAU professor at National School of Architecture of Lyon.  
 
Gérard Mai 
Assistant Planning Officer in the town of Ambert. 
 
ABSTRACT: To suggest some answers to questions about the future of the living environment of human 
settlements in rural areas, this article will discuss intensification assumptions adapted to new or rehabilitated 
housing projects in the rural commune of Ambert, administered by the department of Puy-de-Dôme, France. 
These assumptions are derived from shared education between the two Higher National schools of 
Architecture in Lyon (an area of study called master AA & CC “Architecture, Ambiances and Constructive 
Cultures”) and Grenoble (an area of study called master A & CC “Architecture and Constructive Cultures”). 
They are based on the research and partnership of two laboratories of the Grenoble architectural school, the 
research unit AE & CC (Architecture, Environment and Constructive Cultures, Labex MCC ) and the research 
unit CRESSON (Centre for Research on the SOUND SPACE and the urban environment, UMR CNRS 1563 
Architecture, Ambiance and Urbanity) . This collaboration foreshadows the construction of a solar powered 
habitat in Ambert, showing an approach centered on pleasant surroundings and local building habits.  
Keywords: Habitat, Ambiances, Constructive Cultures, sustainability, energy and rural environment. 
 
Hence the following proposals that attempt to 
connect, around the issue of habitat, in the small 
rural town of Ambert: sensitive approaches and 
technical education, landscape and individual living 
spaces, perceptions and measurements, sustainable 
approaches to the territory and expectations of 
ambiance, all these actions to address the 
transformation of multiple Ambert sites. At the heart 
of our concerns, the renewal of the rural habitat 
questions the alternative to the private home and 
considers density compatible with proximity, 
multiplicity of services, a gradual decrease in the use 
of the car, effective pooling of resources, 
rationalization of transport investment, and a 
guarantee of quality of life in shared spaces and a 
relationship with nature. 
 
DEMOGRAPHIC CHALLENGES IN THE AREA 
OF AMBERT 
 
Faced with population decline, the town of Ambert 
(6600 inhabitants) wishes to retain young people and 
welcome new populations. Many SMEs in the valley 
have developed in the areas of weaving, the wood 
industry and chemicals (Sanofi). If they have today 
2500 industrial jobs, however, they have some 
difficulties in recruiting or keeping their employees. 
The obstacles come from the image of a town far 
away from active centrers where a spouse has 
trouble finding a job and, specifically, a town 
without good housing: it appears unsuited to the 
needs of a population willing to settle there, who 
seek comfort, air, sun, nature-friendly buildings, and 
a feeling for the environment. 
 
 
What is this new population? It is primarily well-
paid executives. They come first for a year keeping 
their original housing, or they prefer to rent on site 
to reduce transport time. They seek a modern 
lifestyle with outside spaces, light and sunshine: a 
furnished or unfurnished rental. After the first 
completed year they move to Ambert, enjoying the 
quality of life, no longer having to make car 
journeys. They hope to buy a home in an existing or 
a new building. Of course they can settle in the 
countryside, but they often need spacious 
accommodation close to the services offered by the 
town (leisure, culture and community activities are 
very lively in Ambert). The desire of the 
municipality is to encourage architecture students to 
imagine homes that attract: comfortable and 
contemporary interior architecture opening on to the 
outside, (not necessarily a privatel garden) but an 
exterior accessible according to the season; housing 
in the city centre, bright, spacious, plush, with a 
history, that is close to services, giving a sense of 
comfort, particularly in winter. 
Secondly there are salaried workers who are 
hopefully recruited locally. Coming from rural areas 
they prefer the new or old houses on the outskirts of 
the town, with a garden (depending on their budget). 
They live while slowly modernizing their house 
bought for between 100,000 and 150,000 Euros. The 
most urban among them accept the shared garden. 
Thirdly there are foremen, apprentices and 
medical aides who come to train for a few months. 
Numbering two hundred, they generate every year a 
high turnover of people. These employees’ 
supervisors look for small or shared apartments, 
comfortable, with terraces and no gardens. The 
company Sanofi, owner of many homes for the 
reception of workers, converted them into temporary 
foster homes for foremen. But the houses are lacking 
and not really suited to employees who want to get 
away from the workplace and get nearer to the 
“town”. A similar desire exists among the “many 
care assistants” who have little income and who 
accept small furnished, shared apartments near the 
hospital, rehabilitated homes in the town centre. As 
for apprentices, they would rather find shelter in 
hostels for young workers that do not exist locally. 
Some are housed in the local boarding school. 
 
Drawing showing location of students’s proposals between 
2011 and 2013. Floriane and Emilie Delesglise Ettori, DEM 
master AA&CC Promotion 2013. 
 
The city council finally states that there is a demand 
for seasonal housing designed for pensioners living 
in villages or hamlets, and coming downtown in 
winter “because it is cold and there is nothing to do 
up there” on the one hand and on the other, for 
seasonal workers on construction sites and public 
works. 
In conclusion the demands of the new 
townspeople are numerous and varied. The town 
centre should suit students, health workers, as well 
as those who love opulent homes. Today it attracts a 
few lonely people with small budgets. To reverse 
this tendency, the architecture students of Lyon and 
Grenoble were encouraged to offer new comfortable 
and attractive homes. Around the Chabrier garden 
(see map for location) a new rather up-market 
development is planned but the municipality wants a 
social mix. This leads the students to consider a 
spatial distribution of new inhabitants described 
above. On the land called “Prairie” in Ambert, near 
the station, would be built, for newcomers, new 
housing, some furnished rental, as well as seasonal 
homes.  On the island development called “Island 
Foch”, a field on the western edge of the town 
centre, students propose an alternative to the house 
in the country by redeveloping an outdoor space, 
shared by the inhabitants, which would provide 
social and age diversity, suited to higher density. 
 
PROPOSALS FOR THE HABITAT 
 
But when we proposed this, many other issues were 
raised. What density is really tolerable? Which 
urban forms are adapted to this density? What 
former architectural styles allow integration into the 
existing ecosystem so as to maximize energy 
performance while preserving social diversity, equal 
access to services and the privacy of individuals, 
while addressing responses to fuel poverty? What 
substances or materials should be used to achieve 
economical levels while participating in the creation 
of an environment appropriate to habits and 
neighborhoods? What symbolic presence and what 
climatic role can plants have in this built-up 
environment? Which building systems and 
construction organizations are best suited to perform 
these complex assemblies while remaining 
compatible with the financial means of the majority? 
Which helpful devices can be envisaged to allow the 
poor to access housing, to meet the basic right of a 
roof over one’s head? 
To submit an early answer to these questions that 
examine the future of the living environment of 
human settlement, here are some ideas shared 
between the national schools of architecture of Lyon 
and Grenoble. 
1 / The habitat model which is preferred by 86% 
of French people, the detached house, is no longer 
compatible with life in Ambert because of transport 
costs between the home and the “town centre”, and 
between the home and the workplace. A new 
development located in the quarter called “Foch”, 
just on the edge of the ancient medieval fabric of the 
sub-prefecture, becomes possible if a large number 
of spatial sensations of a detached house (360 degree 
circular vision, neighborhoods a little way off, 
activities outside extensions, an accessible common 
garden, the existence of outbuildings...) can be 
preserved, improved and integrated into the local 
architecture of the Foch island near central town. 
The “rules” regarding the assumption of vertical 
densification have to be written so as to remain on a 
human scale.  It is not a model that can be applied 
systematically, but one that can be adapted as for the 
Foch island built in the nineteenth century, an island 
with a large interior “garden” belonging to and 
appreciated by its residents, as the proposal below 
shows. 
 
 
 
 
 
Rovy Pessoa Ferreira, Nicolas Schaad, Nicolas Wertheimer, 
DEM master AA&CC promotion 2014 
 
2 / In Ambert, houses in the medieval town are 
narrow and have two or three floors. In a new 
configuration of apartments designed for wealthier 
people, leading to social diversity, the top floors can 
be converted into further elevation, to accommodate 
a laundry, a "sunbathing spot", a summer kitchen, a 
barbecue, a greenhouse, which would provide an 
additional common sheltered space for young 
children to play, get-togethers between tenants on 
public holidays, that would contribute to the 
development of the spirit of the spirit of 
neighbourliness and solidarity. 
 
Rovy Pessoa Ferreira, Nicolas Schaad, Nicolas Wertheimer, 
DEM master AA&CC promotion 2014 
 
3 / Ground floors of the town houses can easily 
include small industries or shops, as the sale of 
fabrics is very much alive in Ambert. Hence the idea 
for offices or business premises comprising  a 
productive diverse urban mix, reducing travel stress 
for some people, ensuring also the exchange, or 
sharing of single person transport such as bicycles or 
electric vehicles. 
 
 
Anne-Claire Bouvier, Alexandre Chavanne, Aurélie 
Rodroguez-Fallard, Maud Royer, DEM master AA&CC 
promotion 2013 
 
 
 
4 / The rehabilitation of the town centre can be 
achieved through a construction system based on a 
prefabrication of small elements which can easily 
enter through doors and windows, thus reducing 
installation costs, increasing the quality control of 
the construction, both these aspects constituting a 
critical given for the construction of buildings to 
“high” energy performance in the current French 
professional context. 
 
Florent Faye, Adrien Gaillard, Noémie Paperin, Nicolas 
Vernet, DEM master A&CC promotion 2012 
 
5 / Other innovative hypotheses? The idea of a 
large training workshop shared with a craft 
cooperative received the Award for Young 
Architects given by the city of Lyon. This project 
would help revive local construction procedures, 
wooden and earth pathways, by involving them in a 
youth training project. 
 
 
 
Floriane Delesglise et Emilie Ettori, DEM master AA&CC 
promotion 2013 
 
The erection of buildings for food production has 
never been part of architectural and landscape 
proposals in Ambert, as it has traditionally been a 
“service” town. However, a change is taking place 
for at least two reasons: firstly, because food might 
give work to one half of a young couple who arrive 
without jobs. The second reason concerns pensioners 
and people in isolated hamlets, who “come down” to 
Ambert and are used to a vegetable garden. They 
could teach gardening to the new young couples. For 
example, on the outskirts of the town, this meeting 
between the two generations could totally renew the 
landscape. 
 
 
Margot Clerc et Flora Picchinenna, DEM master AA&CC 
promotion 2013 
 
 
TO CONCLUDE  
 
The teaching staff proposed the construction of a 
solar habitat prototype for Ambert in 2015/2017. The 
municipality has agreed to underwrite the 
architectural renewal of Ambert with renewable 
energies. It would be designed by a group of 
students and produced by local entrepreneurs 
sharing the project. An architect has offered to 
submit the building permit and supervise the 
students so that the project can be managed in their 
own name.  
The prototype will have to demonstrate the ability 
of Ambert to survive the energy challenges of 
tomorrow. It will also demonstrate, once built and 
tested in situ by locals, the ability to meet local 
multiple perceptions and significations for number 
of people. All spatial planning, even the poorest, can 
be the bearer of meaning; and any construction, even 
the most complex, can be carried out mechanically. 
Project management on site might propose a 
profitable strategy to deliver energy and build a 
dwelling, but this strategy may be insignificant for 
people of that area. The meaning is personal and it 
also focuses on spatial and practical signs 
recognized by all. How then can we advance in 
energy saving by ignoring this phenomenon? What 
meaningful support can this ecological movement 
bring to Ambert, today? Can it be shared between 
architecture students and resi dents of rural areas? 
 
Delphine Bugaud et Alice Gras, DEM master A&CC 
promotion 2012 
 
The reader can see that new issues appear and 
because they deserve answers, the teaching staff has 
committed itself to research, funded by the French 
Office of Architectural and Landscape Research of 
the Ministry of Culture and Communication. 
 


On the ground...and into the air: Research and development for an eco-friendly habitat on rural commune named Ambert

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On the ground...and into the air: Research and development for an eco-friendly habitat on rural commune named Ambert

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