A building without heating or air conditioning will see the light in 2026 in Lyon. It will maintain a comfortable temperature, between 22 and 26 degrees, all year round.
A residential building project, capable of maintaining a comfortable internal temperature without the aid of stoves or air conditionerswill emerge from the earth in 2026 Lyon for the “first” time in France, its promoters announced on Thursday.
Built in the south of the city, in the developing district of Confluence, the “Essentiel 22-26” building will be “the emblem of a united and climate-neutral city,” said the environmentalist president of the Métropole de Lyon, Bruno Bernard, during the presentation of the project.
Designed by Austrian architecture firm Baumschlager Eberle, the six-story building, currently under construction, will be able to maintain an internal temperature of between 22 and 26 degrees all year round “without the use of conventional heating and air conditioning,” promises developer Nexity, which is leading the project.
In the cold season, the rooms are heated “for example by the body heat of the occupants and by the heat released by lighting and household appliances”, assures AFP architect Mathias Bernhardt of the Baumschlager Eberle studio.
When it is warmer, cooling is done by a natural ventilation with a software-controlled shutter that measures the temperature, humidity and air quality in the building through a network of sensors.
Honeycomb bricks, triple glazing…
Finally, its walls made of “60 cm thick honeycomb bricks” and its “triple-glazed” windows must allow for optimal thermal insulation and guarantee by “inertia” the restoration of this internal temperature of about twenty degrees, according to Mathias Bernhardt.
Already tested in Austria and Switzerland since 2013, “L’Essentiel” will be part of a set of eleven buildings dedicated to housing, retail and education, delivered between the beginning of 2026 and the end of 2027, according to Nexity.
L’Essentiel will finally offer the purchase of 23 apartments at moderate prices, at 3,000 euros per m2, while the land remains the property of Foncière Solidaire du Grand Lyon under a real solidarity lease (BRS). A second building of this type is planned for 2028 in Garenne-Colombes in the Hauts-de-Seine.