Reducing construction costs and energy consumption: the Altémed Innovation Lab is working on the housing of the future in Montpellier

Lors de la soirée anniversaire du Lab by Altémed, le lundi 4 mars. DR – Altémed

The Lab aims to develop innovative solutions in order to deploy them in development operations, in the group's 450 residences or in photovoltaic projects, in the Montpellier Metropolis.

Launched in November 2022, Le Lab by Altémed celebrated its first candle this Monday, March 4. It had been wanted by Michaël Delafosse, mayor, president of the Metropolis and president of Altémed, a public group which manages urban development, solidarity housing and renewable energies. "We must regain our capacity for innovation, we must move away from conventional and comfortable paths. We must invent the future and clear what can be cleared. The Lab must allow all of this."

"We started from the observation that to better make public policies, and particularly in housing, development and energy, it was necessary to put in place an innovation approach to better understand the ecosystems", explained Cédric Grail, director of Altémed, a group which has 450 residences. "We put together a team, a location and a budget. We brought together around twenty partners. And we experimented for more than a year. Some failed, others worked well."

"Launching this approach during a complex period, with a very strong real estate crisis, is an opportunity. The real estate world had become disconnected from the market. At Altémed, we try to reconnect buyers and sellers. Today, we are addressing the questions we have been asking for ten years. How to encourage innovation ?. How to build cheaper ? How to build faster ? How to reuse materials ?"

22 meetings organized in 2023

"In 2023, we organized 22 meetings (round tables, conferences, workshops) which brought together nearly 600 participants, recalled Justine Jullian, Altémed Innovation director. We were joined by seven new partners during the year, depending on the projects. With the Lab, we worked with professionals (companies, developers, architects, start-ups, etc.) but also with residents (tenants, students, associations)."

An example ?"At the moment, five residences are equipped with sensors on their shared equipment, with several partners. The challenge is to recover data, better understand the use of our equipment, in order to think about predictive maintenance of our buildings tomorrow."< /p>

Water, major theme in 2024

For 2024, innovative solutions will be sought to reduce construction costs and those of electricity and water consumption. "Several workshops will be devoted to water, a major new theme this year", announced Jonathan Domergue, deputy general director at innovation at Altémed.

During this anniversary evening, Cédric Grail and Nordine El Ouachmi, president of French Tech Méditerranée, announced that the final of the competition would take place during the Hello la Tech festival, on June 25, in Montpellier .

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