The most bizarre announcements circulated this April 1st, in the press, on television, radio, and even online. The Nice-Premium article about the “House of Sustainable Actions” was not in this category, and we will prove it to you, with (preview) photos taken during the Ever Fair in Monaco.
True to his approach that led him to leave his position as a math and physics-chemistry teacher to join ORTF in 1972, Michel Chevalet, one of the first science journalists—along with François de Closet, Albert Ducroq, and Martine Allain-Regnault—to make the most complex phenomena accessible and understandable, had this idea for the “House of Sustainable Actions” during the Grenelle Environment Conference.
The first low-energy consumption itinerant house
He proposed to Jean-Louis Borloo to build a modular house (three modules), itinerant, which would illustrate all the principles of eco-citizen behavior, whether for individuals (children and adults) but also for professionals, an attitude which despite the crisis, has some difficulty entering into all minds.
To carry out this project of the first itinerant “Low Energy Building” (BBC), Michel Chevalet could count on the support of the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Regional Planning, the Agency for the Environment and Energy Management (ADEME), the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, and GDF-SUEZ. It was produced with the participation of Nausicaa for the scenographic part inspired by the “House of Gestures” from Boulogne-sur-Mer, in which Michel Chevalet naturally participated.
He wanted us to build a real 80 m2 house, with a cost around €1300/m2, which meets the requirements of new standards applicable in 2012 aimed at reducing our energy consumption by 20% according to the decree of May 8, 2007, from the texts of the Grenelle Environment.
You might say that all this is a bit too complicated and that you don’t see what you could change.
With this house, you might not realize that the shape of the building has been defined as compact as possible, with an optimal orientation and a percentage of openings (bay windows) close to 17%, a rate that will limit as much as possible the use of artificial lighting in favor of natural light.
It’s hard to verify the reinforced insulation, that part of the roof is vegetated and will be irrigated by rainwater collected in a tank, that the house has an ultra-efficient ecological boiler (condensing) coupled with solar panels for domestic hot water or photovoltaic sensors (for electricity) on the facade.
“How it works” is still relevant
However, you will fully realize the right choices to make in a house regarding energy consumption and environmental protection, because everything happens inside.
Rest assured, this will not be another tedious exhibition with clichés repeated over and over again; that’s not really the style of the “Chevalet house.”
Older ones will surely not have forgotten the famous phrase “How it Works” (1) which preceded any explanation by this now-parodied science journalist by Laurent Gerra.
Michel Chevalet (2), who collaborates in particular within the Science Video Service, continues to create with a series of short videos displayed on screens in this house, screens that are economical in their operation, as you will see.
You will find all the accessories of a house in the different rooms, but in each of them, either a quiz or a demonstration but always in a playful, didactic, and interactive way.
In the kitchen, don’t miss opening the refrigerator, in addition to playing with the large water desk, because it talks…
In the living room, you can really feel the difference between a conductor and an insulator.
In the bathroom, fully equipped too, another desk with four sets of questions about water consumption from the toilet flush, the washing machine, the shower and a washbasin tap – and all with the real sound.
Other equally attractive demonstrations await you in this first BBC house, modular and capable of being itinerant(3). No doubt it must be visited by adults (individuals and professionals) but especially by children and particularly schoolchildren. It’s a life lesson that should not be hard to pass, for once…
(1) “How it Works” is also the title of a DVD (Sony Music Video, released in 2004) explaining about forty physical, meteorological, and natural phenomena, including the entire broadcast from one year on the Météo channel.
(2) Michel Chevalet, who will be 70 this year, initially was a teacher from 1968 to 1971 before joining the ORTF in 1972, having caught the “journalism bug” during his military service while collaborating with the famous magazine T.A.M (Land, Air, and Sea), that of the armed forces. He has never disconnected from journalism but, since 1999, he is doing it in an even more independent manner and is credited with many “firsts.”
(3) It can be visited at the Albert 1er gardens in Nice until the end of this April. The inauguration is scheduled for this Sunday, April 5 at 4 pm.
