ESTP creates the profiles of tomorrow's startupers

Pauline Bellec, a final year student of the ESA x ESTP architect-engineer dual degree, was able to take advantage of this support to develop her coat-ing project - an innovative process for the energy renovation of the facades of our buildings.

Pauline was noticed by Robert-Jan van SANTEN during her internship at the Lille agency VS-A, a design office specializing in building envelopes. Together they decided to found and develop the startup coat-ing, of which she is president.

This exterior insulation solution aims to limit the heating and air conditioning needs of a building, by installing a pre-stressed and customizable canvas in front of the facades, a loose expanded cork filling (from harvesting cork oak bark – which stores a lot of carbon) and an aluminum profile that acts as both a frame and joinery. Materials already existing on the market, but whose combination is innovative, more economical, faster to implement, while having a neutral carbon footprint thanks to the use of bio-sourced materials.

During the summer of 2024, Pauline is doing an internship at the ESTP Research Institute alongside Gilles Bétis, head of development and innovation for the Institute, Hichem Benzaama, head of the energy efficiency research team, and Yassine Hassani, a lecturer-researcher and expert in digital topography systems. They are then supporting her in the creation of a first prototype finalized this summer in the North of France, which will be inaugurated on December 3, 2024 in Pont-à-Vendin, as well as in a phase of acoustic and thermal tests thanks to the Institute's energy and topography laboratories, with the collaboration of external laboratories (UPEC, Matelys). The scientific and technological expertise and cutting-edge equipment of ESTP thus enable the coat-ing start-up to have a marketable product, whose full-scale tests in the Hauts-de-France region, then to come on the Cachan campus and at the Saint-Etienne International Design Biennale, have demonstrated excellent performance. These are also higher than the expected standards in terms of energy performance in the field of renovation. In terms of sound insulation (i.e. thermal and acoustic comfort), the tests have shown that the solution also absorbs outdoor noise (over 90%) and reduces sound reverberation in the streets or in schoolyards.

Today, ESTP provides advice and expertise to Pauline with a view to certifying the solution via the ATEx (Technical Experimentation Assessment) of the CSTB. The startup is currently seeking funding and is looking for new profiles to continue its development. Coat-ing was also named in 2024 in the Top50 of PropTech Europe Association Awards in Brussels as well as in the Top20 Impact Awards of Expo Real in Munich.

It is also incubated at Station F, via the Villes de demain x Station F program, but also within Descartes Développement et Innovation, a technology park and incubator in eastern Paris. The next step? Coat-ing wants to create its first demonstrator, to be able to launch the marketing of its solution quickly, on the French and European markets. The system highlighted by its printable canvas will also be present this summer during the Saint-Etienne International Design Biennale in 2025, with the coat-ing team and the ESTP.

As the success of Pauline Bellec's project proves, ESTP knows how to support its students to boost their creativity and their capacity for innovation for the benefit of sustainable urban planning. In the coming years, thanks to the support of the Île-de-France region and BPI within the framework of Grand Lieux d'Innovation, even more startups and innovative companies will be able to be supported and accelerated in a collaborative framework, at a high scientific, technical and entrepreneurial level.