18th edition of the Architectural Rising Stars Award: BNP Paribas Real Estate unveils the winning projects

A true space for dialogue between the academic world and professionals, this national competition highlights emerging talents and their ability to respond to environmental challenges.

This year, students were invited to reflect on the theme:

"Adaptation and mitigation: anticipating and acting in the face of climate change"

Participants had to choose a vacant office building and propose a transformation adapted to the climatic risks specific to its location in France.

The competition thus invited participants to explore:

• Adapting buildings to climate change: designing and transforming to withstand hazards, protect occupants and limit vulnerabilities.
• Supporting the change in usage: rethinking uses and proposing new forms and methods of sharing spaces to address the challenges of intensity of use.
• Architectural creativity: making vacant office space a lever for more sustainable, inclusive and vibrant cities.

BNP Paribas Real Estate invited future architects to imagine how to make the office building an essential contributor to the adaptation and mitigation strategy, in order to prepare our cities for the climate and societal challenges of tomorrow.

According to Catherine Papillon, International Director of Sustainable Development/CSR at BNP Paribas Real Estate: “This 18th edition of the Prix des Espoirs de l'Architecture (Architecture Rising Stars Prize) confirms the commitment and creativity of students in addressing the challenges of climate change and the necessary transformations of our cities. The quality of the projects presented illustrates the ability of the younger generation to imagine concrete solutions for adapting and reinventing existing buildings, reconciling architectural innovation, environmental sustainability, and the quality of life for users. Over the years, this prize has established itself as a springboard for young talent, fostering dialogue between education, research, and professionals. Its influence testifies to the collective interest in these essential reflections that contribute to developing approaches for shaping the sustainable city of tomorrow.”

Discover the winning projects of this 2025-2026 edition

Jury Prize: “Waiting for the Storm” by Romane Toussaint – ENSA Paris-La Villette

The Jury*, chaired by Thierry Laroue-Pont and composed of architects, urban planners and representatives of the company, awarded the "Jury Prize" to the project "Waiting for the Storm", led by Romane Toussaint, a Master 1 student at ENSA Paris-La Villette.

Selected for the quality of its design and the relevance of its response to climate challenges, the project offers a sensitive and innovative architectural solution to the intensification of rainfall events. It is located in a district of Rouen characterized by urban isolation and a gradual rise in groundwater levels, with the aquifer potentially reaching 1,5 meters by 2100.

Rather than fighting against this climatic hazard, the project chooses to learn to live with it. The building thus becomes a neighborhood library conceived as a veritable reservoir, capable of holding both knowledge and rainwater. Its green ground floor, designed as a free and porous surface, functions in calm weather like a public garden and transforms, during rainy periods, into an amphibious landscape crisscrossed by walkways.

Inside, the architecture is organized like a hydraulic machine. A central reservoir room can alternately host conferences or store water before redistributing it through reuse circuits. On the facade, a double-glazed skin acts as a vertical tank, serving as a winter garden or a hydraulic reservoir depending on the weather conditions.

By transforming water from a constraint into a resource, "Waiting for the Storm" proposes a model that can be replicated on an urban scale. Multiplied throughout the city, these structures would form a network of reservoirs capable of absorbing excess water while simultaneously fostering social connections.

Internet Users' Choice Award: "Bobigny Délire" by Malaury Pierre and Maxime Caudrelier – ENSA Paris La Villette

With a total of 890 votes, the "Internet Users' Choice Award" was given to the "Bobigny Délire" project conceived by Malaury Pierre and Maxime Caudrelier, Master 1 students at ENSA Paris-La Villette.

Inspired by Rem Koolhaas' "Delirious New York", this project claims a critical and forward-looking stance: to observe an ordinary territory and project onto it an assumed vision of the city of tomorrow.

The term "delirium" here is not synonymous with excess or absurdity, but with constructive utopia. It involves taking the opposite approach to sometimes standardized urban planning in order to propose a more generous, greener, and more collective architecture.

The students envision a green, eco-responsible building open to its neighborhood, incorporating a semi-permeable landscaped plaza, planted terraces, and a community garden. The goal is to create a building that breathes, reduces urban heat islands, and fosters interaction among residents.

Beyond environmental performance, the project emphasizes shared spaces: a communal living area, meeting places, and intergenerational spaces. The "Bobigny Délire" project thus champions an architecture that transcends mere housing to recreate social connections and envision a more sustainable, collective, and vibrant city.

BNP Paribas Real Estate Special Prize – “From office to plate, demen ka kiltivé” by Morgane Lelouey-Rault – ENSA Paris-La Villette

BNP Paribas Real Estate has awarded a Special Prize to the project "From Office to Plate, Demen Ka Kiltivé" by Morgane Lelouey-Rault, a Master 1 student at ENSA Paris-La Villette. Her project proposes the transformation of a former, vacant bank branch in Guadeloupe into a nurturing and resilient space. Faced with increasing rainfall, rising temperatures, and deteriorating soils, the architecture chooses to work with the tropical climate rather than resist it.

The spaces are raised to anticipate rising damp, the floors are made permeable to promote infiltration, and natural ventilation provided by the trade winds limits the need for air conditioning. By utilizing local resources such as coconut fiber and tropical wood, the building becomes an open ecosystem. A daycare center, cooking workshops, a productive greenhouse, and communal spaces breathe new life into the vacant office space, linking climate, food, and social connection in a model adaptable to other exposed areas. The "From Office to Plate" project demonstrates that by rehabilitating existing structures and relying on local resources, architecture can become a concrete lever for climate resilience while recreating shared spaces rooted in their local environment.

*Jury Members 2025-2026:

BNP Paribas Real Estate:

• Thierry Laroue-Pont, Executive Chairman
• Catherine Papillon, International Director of Sustainable Development / CSR
• Caroline Sainderichin, Deputy Managing Director – Promotion
• Carole de Matharel, Deputy Managing Director in charge of Development – ​​Promotion
• Mélanie Moisan, Central Development Director France - Promotion

Architects, urban planners:

• Laetitia Antonini – Antonini Architect & Associates
• Clémence Béchu – Béchu & Associates
• Charlotte Belval – Belval & Parquet Architectes
• Céline Bouvier – LBBA
• Nicola Carnevali – RSHP
• Benjamin Lafore – MBL
• François Peyron – ZEFCO
• Olivier Rafaelli – Triptych
• Marion Waller - Arsenal Pavilion