Eco office building in Meythet, France

Prioriterre, the energy advising centre of Haute-Savoie developed the idea to have a demonstration building that shows how one can change consumption behaviour through simple and practical principles in everyday life. Together with Meythet city and other partners, Prioriterre has worked on a high performance building that will become the association’s new office.

The Maison pour la Planète (house for the planet) was designed with support of the INTERREG IIIA programme France/ Switzerland and involved Prioriterre, HEPIA (Geneva engineering school), the city of Meythet, Haute-Savoie Council and several architects who worked on the idea of a very low energy building. The building was constructed from 2008 to 2009 and is owned by the municipality.




The 700m² building is based on very simple construction principles with local material and equipment.
Special attention was given to the environmental impact of materials which were chosen for their lower energy consumption and fewer emissions of greenhouse gases and that included less heavy metal in the production process.


The Maison pour la Planète is one of the first service buildings in Haute-Savoie that received the MINERGIE-P-ECO® label (Swiss high performance building label). In practical terms, it means that the building has an energy requirement for heating below 15kWh/m²/year thanks to its insulation
and to the very good air-tightness of the envelope and an energy consumption of less than 30 kWh/m²/year thanks to the equipment: double flow ventilation, heat pump with geothermal probe, and solar thermal heating. The focus was given to the different stage of the construction and the different techniques used to meet the MINERGIE-P-ECO® requirements.

The concept was also to show that such a building can be built by other local authorities or for enterprises. It is not a prototype but a reproducible building.

 

Corresponding documents for download (PDF-files)