A CONSCIOUS TOMORROW : Ecology according to EGA

EGA Erik Giudice Architecture, an agency founded by Erik Giudice, is based in France and Sweden. It is involved in several fields, ranging from architecture to urban planning, including research and design. Its achievements demonstrate an innovative and eco-responsible approach.

EGA was commissioned to provide architectural coordination for all the facilities in the Olympic sector of the river eco-neighbourhood (Ilot PE), as well as the design of two buildings to provide accommodation for athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The transformation of these two entities into student accommodation for the PE2 building and offices for the PE5 building was also part of the second phase of the large-scale project.

“We adapted the buildings to the function of the Olympic Games with an approach quite different from the other Olympic villages, where the main function was to house the athletes. Here, the overall approach was to build the city of tomorrow”, we are explained. “We just adapted it so that it could host the sporting event, which only lasts three weeks.”

In such an operation, the difficulty of the task is to manage to think about the two time frames, always with the idea of the Olympic Games and also the legacy of the Games. It is an innovative architectural and urban approach.

“It was a design where the urban project was already defined. We worked, among other things, on the volumetry and the materials.”

As the delivery date was fixed, it was necessary to perform well. About ten architects worked on this part of the city, which included a student residence, an office building, a hotel, the Cité des Arts (Ed.: Arts District) and a leisure and water sports centre, as well as housing. For the office building (PE5), the dual design took the whole into account and adhered strictly to the regulations applicable to offices and to a residence. The submission of the dual building permit was also an innovation.

“Regarding the interior fittings, the bathrooms are modular bathrooms that will later on be reused, i.e. recovered and introduced into another building. For the partitions, we developed a plasterboard partition with Saint-Gobain that can be dismantled and is completely recoverable thanks to the easily removable visible screws. This makes it possible to take the partitions down without breaking the floor or ceiling. Each panel has a QR code with the dimensions, location and type, so that when they come to collect the panels, they will be able to store and sort them, etcetera.”

Similarly, with regard to the legacy phase, when the building was to become a set of open-plan offices, thought was given to the layout of the stairs and lifts, so that it could function in compliance with both sets of regulations. In France, the regulations differ depending on the programme and the content: “But that doesn't prevent us from making provisions for the eventuality that, in 20 or 30 years’ time, if they want to convert the offices into residences, as is increasingly the case, everything has already been planned. We really do have a transformable and reversible building.”

EGA often reflects, from the design stage onwards, on the different lives of a building. Beyond the choice of materials, the agency works on the flexibility, transformability and also the scalability of a building. For the student residence (PE2) that was used to house the athletes during the Olympic Games, EGA had a different approach from the one used for the previous project. The whole was carried out in off-site construction where each room constitutes a module in its own right.

“The various modules were manufactured in a factory in northern France, transported along the Seine and then assembled.” The ground floor, which houses the entrance hall, the large common room, the study room and a few shops, was built in concrete, as was the stairwell, for reasons of fire safety and building stability. Then, the volumes that make up the structure of the building were stacked: “Each volume is approximately 3 metres by 6 metres and constitutes a room. The interior of the room is already fitted out.”

The units are constructed in a factory, then stacked on site, and the facade, also made on site, is finally fitted over the whole structure. The building is erected using innovative technologies that considerably reduce the carbon footprint, since the construction consists of 80% wood. The fact that it is constructed in a factory means that offcuts are minimised, while also providing better working conditions.

The wood on the facade is treated with an impregnation developed by a French company. It is an ecological impregnation that allows it to be pre-greyed, giving it a certain homogeneous colour. EGA works in France and Sweden, following a Nordic approach and favouring the use of bio-based materials, such as during a project that will be delivered in Malmö this year. This is an office building that will be carbon neutral for 50 years. Vista won the award for the greenest building in Sweden. This is an environmental certification system in which a project is evaluated on the basis of fifteen indicators in the areas of energy and climate, indoor and outdoor environment and circularity.

Erik Giudice, who grew up partly between Sweden and the Italian countryside, was interested in the preservation of nature from a very young age. He proposed a wooden construction for his graduation project, which was something that caught people's attention at the time. Later, the architect continued to introduce wood into his designs. Furthermore, the founder of the EGA agency is aware that ecological construction is not limited to the use of wood but also includes various bio- and geo-sourced materials such as natural stone, raw earth and straw. The architect emphasises the fact that each region has its own specificities and that, sometimes, it is better to combine construction methods or materials in order to adapt to the context. The agency now has around twenty people based in France and Sweden. Beyond in-depth reflection on programme, form and expression, EGA innovates in the way it constructs the buildings it designs. “I am quite optimistic that the profession is reinventing itself”, concludes Erik Giudice.