Le Figaro Bordeaux
Meeting the housing needs of Bordeaux residents while limiting the impact of construction on the environment is the whole challenge of the
“Bordeaux Frugal Building”
(BFB) label, a system based on volunteering announced in 2020 by the ecological municipality.
More than three years later, this innovative label will be subject to review, because the criteria to be met to benefit from it are considered too restrictive by real estate developers.
“The urbanization generated in Bordeaux over the last 20 years has largely contributed to concrete our landscape, to
artificializing our soils
and to aggravating climate change
,” explains the mayor of the city, Pierre Hurmic, according to whom
“housing is today expensive and difficult to find”
while
“the people of Bordeaux are struggling to get to grips with the new, huge neighborhoods, whose architecture and town planning do not always convince them, and where nature is receding”
.
“Despite fifty years of increasingly drastic thermal regulations, buildings constructed in Bordeaux, as in other metropolises, are still not up to the challenges of tomorrow.”
This is why the councilor wanted
to “initiate an ambitious evolution of the Bordeaux territory through the implementation of more resilient urban planning”
.
This label aims
“to promote a building that preserves existing natural spaces, adapted to the territory, focused on local sectors, concerned with the use and quality of life of its occupants, while reducing its climate impacts”
.
Also read “Repair and prepare the city”: Bordeaux is increasing its revegetation projects
“No one manages to tick all 42 criteria”
In 2021, twelve demonstrator projects were associated with the first version of this label, recalls Stéphane Pfeiffer, deputy mayor in charge of resilient urban planning, the public housing service and the social and solidarity economy.
The elected official specifies, however, that the BFB label is only awarded upon delivery of the buildings,
"because modifications are possible until then"
, which explains that
"for the moment, there has not yet been attribution”
.
Already,
“among these demonstrator projects, some did not go through to completion or were significantly reworked because of the real estate crisis”
.
For the opposition, these would therefore only be nice words.
“Pierre Hurmic boasts of his label “Frugal Bordeaux Building” but in three years no label has been issued
,” criticizes Fabien Robert, opposition elected official (MoDem), from the Bordeaux Ensemble group, emphasizing that
“no one manages to check the 42 requested criteria
.
Halfway through the next municipal elections, Bordeaux Ensemble deplores
“three years of announcements, incantations, diagnoses, proclamations, speeches, self-satisfaction”
.
According to elected officials from the right and the center,
“it’s true for this label, it’s true for the rest”
.
Also read Vegetation, safety, cleanliness... What conclusions can be drawn three years after the arrival of environmentalists in Bordeaux?
A new version presented on March 11
Currently, the BFB label provides for 42 criteria, of which at least 22 must be respected.
One, two or three
“leaves”
can then be awarded depending on the total number of criteria checked, explains Stéphane Pfeiffer.
“It is an extremely ambitious benchmark, because it contains many things that operators are not used to doing today
,” such as the use of biosourced or reused materials, limited artificialization of soils, green islands of freshness around the building, natural ventilation and construction anticipating rising temperatures.
“It’s not simple, because otherwise it would have been a meaningless tool
,” defends the elected official responsible for resilient urban planning.
Although it is still under construction, this label has also benefited from several recognitions, including the first prize for housing during the Zero Carbon Forum in Paris, in December 2022. For Stéphane Pfeiffer, if no labeled project is yet emerged from the ground, it is mainly because
“the average duration of projects is three to four years”
.
The elected official specifies that the new version of the label, which will be presented to professionals on March 11, provides that instead of respecting 22 prerequisites, real estate projects
“reach at least sixteen”
, with also
“six additional to choose from”
, which should allow
“to be tailor-made, because not all real estate projects are the same”
.
The deputy has
“good hope”
that certain projects will be inaugurated before the end of the mandate,
“even if this is not an objective in itself”
.