2023-12-31 14:57:46
In Moisy, near Vendôme (Loir-et-Cher), where the family business Le Prieuré Vegetal iD has been based for six generations, everything is different from the effervescent atmosphere of Seine-Saint-Denis. The horticultural SME headed by Raphaël Lamé was selected by Solideo, the public establishment responsible for Olympic and Paralympic infrastructure, to design the green roof of the athletes’ village in Saint-Denis. This cover of greenery, and the matching solar panels, will contribute to the ambitious objectives set by Paris 2024 of not emitting more than 1.58 million tonnes of CO equivalent, i.e. half as much greenhouse gas as the London Games in 2012 and Rio in 2016. However, this is the equivalent of the annual emissions of 150,000 French people.
“Solideo wanted to promote innovation, sustainable development and SMEs”, says the company manager from the administrative premises adjoining the house passed down from generation to generation. “We had applied to different project owners for four lots (out of several dozen submitted to calls for tender, Editor’s note) before being chosen for the river eco-district of L’Île-Saint-Denis, which will be the athletes’ village. » This project was awarded in 2019 to the consortium formed by the Bordeaux developer Pichet and the Ille-et-Vilaine builder Legendre.
2,000 m of solar panels and 8,000 m of green roof
The horticulturist’s action was dictated by specifications ” very precise ” having to resolve strong constraints linked to rainwater management. In this regard, surface vegetation has the advantage of offering a large capacity for storing and then releasing water through evaporation. The company went even further, offering its Oasis Biosolar solution, which combines photovoltaic production with revegetation.. This technique, which required five years of research and a million euros of investment, is being used for the first time on a large-scale project.
Here, 2,000 m of solar panels are planned alongside 8,000 m of roof, on which spontaneous vegetation, trees and varieties of sedums, these perennial plants very resistant to drought, will grow, under a layer of substrates produced on the company’s land in Moisy. Depending on the type of settlement, half a dozen recipes, composed of materials such as basaltic volcanic rock, have been developed in their laboratory. “We do everything from A to Z, right through to the execution of the work,” claims Raphaël Lamé.
In Saint-Denis, the hanging gardens will accommodate living spaces, offering their future residents islands of greenery and freshness that will be appreciated during heatwaves. From November 1, 2024, a new phase of work called “legacy” will begin to transform the Olympic village into an eco-district.
A stagnating market in a context of real estate crisis
Glad to have picked up “one of the greatest deals in the company’s history” since it began designing green roofs in the early 1990s, Raphaël Lamé did not expect such media exposure. “For a year, people have only talked to me about this project. Our customers only remember that, he testifies. However, this has not yet had an accelerating effect for our activity. We are only at the beginning of organic solar. But, for us, this is a major market issue in order to respond to the climate and resilience law which requires, in stages, to add green or energy-producing roofs. From now on, soil waterproofing must systematically be compensated. »
This Olympic showcase comes at a time when the real estate sector is hit by a worrying structural crisis, which adds to recruitment difficulties. Raphaël Lamé expects to face “difficult years”. Especially since this niche market for green roofs is stagnating after having developed significantly in the years 2005-2015, driven by the public sector for the construction of hospitals, educational establishments, nursing homes, ice rinks and media libraries. In France, “which is not the most backward country”, The green roof market is growing by around 15%, or 1.6 million square meters installed per year, far behind Germany (more than 10 million square meters per year) and the northern countries. Europe.
Despite this worrying situation, this company, which has around a hundred employees in France and Spain, where it has a nursery, continues to do well, carrying out nearly 800 projects in 2023. Its interventions on the Biotope building in Lille in 2019, built by the Danish architecture agency Henning Larsen, initially intended for the European Medicines Agency, on which 150 trees and undergrowth were planted on the roofs, on the Rungis logistics platform or the aerial vegetable garden of the Bastille opera, have consolidated its reputation. “We were first present in the West, in Rhône-Alpes, and in the North, the pioneering territories. Today, Île-de-France concentrates the majority of requests because we have the capacity to offer a wide range of solutions (extensive roof, garden roof, sloping roof, bio-solar roof, etc.). »
A cereal farm that has diversified over the past forty years
As a precaution and to perpetuate the history of the farm, Raphaël Lamé wanted to maintain cereal crops in his fields, which represent 80% of the cultivated areas, “for a very small part” of its turnover. This former student of the Grenoble business school believes in the trajectory laid out by his father, who made the choice, in the 1980s, to turn to horticulture and the production of roll turf..
This shift in diversification was then observed with wide-eyed disbelief by neighboring operators. His parents, children of the JAC (Catholic Agricultural Youth), have always “regretted this lack of openness in agriculture”. In the years to come, their son will once again have to demonstrate agility and adaptation in the face of transformations in the construction sector: “To refresh the city, it is no longer a question of doing something new. It will be necessary to “green” the existing”, he maintains. “In one year, everything has changed, the big real estate developers are only talking about renovation because of the terrible drop in construction starts. » Regularly solicited by construction majors wishing to absorb this innovative SME, this fifty-year-old, who is already thinking about his succession, declines all offers with the hope of seeing one of his children take up the torch.
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The Olympic Village in figures
Spread across three municipalities (Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine and L’Île-Saint-Denis), the village will welcome 15,000 athletes and their staff during the Olympic events and 9,000 athletes, 15 days later, during the Paralympic Games.
The Games Organizing Committee estimates that 60,000 meals will be served there each day.
The village will include a clinic available to athletes as well as a prosthesis and chair repair center for para-athletes. Initially expected at Christmas, delivery of the site was postponed to the beginning of March 2024 at the latest.
At the end of the Games, the Village must become an eco-district of 52 hectares welcoming 6,000 residents in 2,800 housing units, including 2,000 family housing units and 800 residential housing units, particularly for students. It will also house a hotel, two school groups, a nursery, sports fields, 120,000 m² of offices and 3,200 m² of local shops. There will finally be 6 hectares of green spaces, including a public park.
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