AuRA ● Grenoble, France

The team AuRA will be jointly guided by the Grenoble National School of Architecture (ENSAG) and the Grands Ateliers Innovation Architecture (GAIA). These two institutions have been historically deeply involved in the previous SDE adventures of the team. AuRA has participated in the SDE competitions 2010 (where they won first place) and 2012 (where they won fourth place) in Madrid. In 2014, they were involved in the organisation of the SDE in Versailles. The team will also include the Saint-Etienne National School of architecture (ENSASE), the University of Grenoble (UGA), the ENSE3 school, the ENSAM Chambéry school, the Association des compagnons du devoir et du tour de France (AOCDTF), the IUTGEII Grenoble, the IAE of Grenoble, the URBAN school of Lyon and HES-SO.

The project of the French team is located at the Col de l’Arzelier in the commune of Château Bernard, about 35 minutes from Grenoble. This mid-mountain pass, located at an altitude of 1154 metres, is experiencing an economic decline since the closure of its ski lifts in 2018. Team AuRA aims to revitalise this area and to develop its potential to welcome new permanent inhabitants.

For this, they are developing a concept for a characteristic former hotel from the 1970s. It will be renovated, integrating housing, common areas and activities. To limit entropy, the designed projects will only be using geo-based or bio-based matters, as well as re-used materials.

Team AuRA believes that there is a territorial balance to be established between large metropolises and less densely populated areas in France. Thus, rather than working on the densification of the city, the team develops the Distributed Urbanism notion and addresses the following question: What is the most sustainable way of making territory today?

In this regard, the team is working on three different scales:

• Territorial scale: put forward possible alternatives to the metropolises relying on the periurban and rural areas existing building stock.
• Local scale: encourage resilient, fertile and self-sufficient communities’ development.
• Architectural scale: propose an architectural project based on sobriety, energy efficiency andnthe use of renewable energy. This intent directly refers to the three Negawatt scenario pillars, developed to reduce carbon emissions.