ProspeKtive

Let's be clear: the often-used term "real estate industry" has never been more irrelevant. Despite technological advances, many projects are still being developed in the traditional way, using unsuitable or even obsolete tools. In the light of growing economic and environmental demands, off-site construction could provide our industry with a lever for industrialization and modernization. A way to build faster, better and cheaper. Provided we encourage innovation and a genuine culture of change.

In recent years, teleworking has grown by leaps and bounds, fuelled by the rise of technology and increasing flexibility in the world of work. The Covid-19 pandemic and confinement restrictions have amplified this trend. By reducing commuting distances, teleworking contributes to the reduction of CO2 emissions, and can therefore serve as a lever for regulating mobility. However, it can have secondary effects on commuting and residential travel, known as "rebound effects" (Hostettler Macias, Ravalet, & Rérat, 2022).

Since the first confinement, the real estate world has been wondering about the so-called new places where French households live and work. Local councillors and developers alike saw an opportunity to rebalance the French territory, historically centralized around Paris. Yet initial post-covid trends do not point to a new world. What if the pandemic was merely a revelation rather than a revolution in the major territorial dynamics of the residential and office markets? Is telecommuting a real game-changer for France?

With 460 million tonnes of mineral materials per year (ADEME, 2019), the building and public works sector is the leading waste creator in France. The recent Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Act of February 10, 2020, known as the "Agec Act", requires project owners, from January 2023, to draw up a "products, equipment, materials, waste" (PEMD) diagnosis, as well as to make use of reuse and reemployment in demolition and rehabilitation projects. In this context, architectural practices are likely to be reshaped to integrate resources already present in the project process.

In a context where material needs are generally satisfied, the desire for immaterial goods is increasing (Inglehart 2000). This includes free time, which can be managed autonomously, as the current debate on the four-day week underlines.

Since 1981, the average increase in artificial land has been around 60,000 hectares per year[1]. Artificialized land in France has thus increased from 3 million hectares to 5.1 million in forty years, an increase of 70%. Faced with this transformation of the landscape, a number of agronomists are taking an interest in the different forms of land use, and introducing a new field of research: the phenomenon of artificialisation.