Teaching Masters within the National School of Architecture of Grenoble

The principle objective of this thematic Masters, under the educational responsibility of Pascal Rollet, is to train specialists in design of eco-friendly architecture and techniques that are integrated into the social milieu and in a given area.

This Masters, through the ‘Grands Ateliers’, stimulates the students to think critically and creatively of new types of housing, and to propose housing projects “friendly (to the planet) and inexpensive”, energy efficient and financially accessible to all, while strongly integrating the notion of savings (doing more with less, effective harnessing of energy, reducing the operating and maintenance burden). The project aims at establishing a centre of excellence for eco-friendly housing within the framework of a land settlement policy and social milieu (natural as well as urban).

During the first year of the Masters, the knowledge of materials and construction systems are a priority to grasp (in theory and practice), through experiment time in the ‘Grands Atelier’, the links between the logic of conception and building logic. In the second year of the Masters, emphasis is placed on the complexity and necessity to think through the various levels of a housing project in connection with its territorial layout and production methods. Students must conceive an affordable housing project. The issues of urban development, integration into the landscape, energy management and local materials, as well as models of construction, are all dealt with within a specific framework for each situation (densely urban or less dense, peri-urban or rural).