With designs from practices including Tatiana Bilbao and Serie Architects, the development embraces the use of CLT, terracotta, hemp and raw earth

Paris is gearing up to build its first ‘zero-carbon’ neighbourhood. Located at Porte de Montreuil, a district on Paris’ eastern outskirts, the 35ha strip running alongside the Boulevard Périphérique ring-road is set to undergo an estimated 60,000 sq m of development.

The pilot project will test ecological building strategies at scale, formed as a collaboration between architectural design firms Serie Architects, Atelier Georges, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio and Bond Society which won the international Reinventing Cities competition with their joint proposal. Each will be designing prototypes of what will be eight new mixed-use buildings and a public square, with construction run by developers Nexity, Crédit Agricole Immobilier and Aire Nouvelle.

‘Zero-carbon’ here means that the carbon emitted from the construction of the neighbourhood development is equivalent to the carbon it will absorb or remove from the atmosphere, offsetting its creation (what developments in the UK would call ‘net-zero’). Instead of lingering heavily on simply covering the buildings in greenery – which can dangerously veer into greenwashing territory (though it is still present) – there is a concerted focus towards using materials to achieve the net-zero goal.

100% of the facades – excluding glazing – will be composed of natural materials including terracotta bricks, hemp and raw earth which come from the local region of Île-de-France. 80% of the superstructures for all buildings are set to be built with cross-laminated timber (CLT) and stone of French origin rather than metal or concrete.

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