To pursue the laudable objective of sustainable construction, reversibility has become a major issue: everyone agrees on the fact that it is inconceivable today to build monovalent buildings, the use of which is frozen forever. ; to take just the example of office buildings, rapid (r)evolutions in the way of working can render constructions in perfect condition obsolete, condemning them to early demolition.
The legislator has therefore taken up the subject: the Climate and Resilience law of the summer of 2021 provides for a “reversibility study” which must, one imagines, demonstrate the possibility of converting a building into another use. We await with some excitement the terms of application of this law...
However, another translation of this objective of reversibility arises: according to the good old principle "who can do more, can do less", the fire regulations (currently being revised) would like to adopt, for the general case, the most stringent requirements. It has long been identified that the risks are different in dwellings where a population of various ages is likely to sleep, and in professional premises where the users do not necessarily know the premises. The various European countries have different approaches on this point: some have stricter regulations on housing, others on business premises.
We fervently hope that the good idea of reversibility will not give birth to a regulatory monster combining, without critical analysis, the constraints of housing and offices. Reason would preach for a pragmatic and analytical overhaul of standards, taking into account the new challenges.
Another aspect of the fight against carbon emissions is the use of bio-sourced materials, which constitute, thanks to photosynthesis, permanent stocks of biogenic carbon. This interest has been recognized by the new environmental regulation, the RE 2020. This gives the still underdeveloped but promising bio-based materials industry a slight boost…. which could upset the installed positions.
So on the occasion of a revision of the fire safety rules, which must obviously take into account the presence of wood, in a significant way, in this new type of constructions, appear studies of the Center for Studies and Research of the Industry of the Concrete who advocate the generalized encapsulation of all wooden structures, with plasterboard, which threatens to increase considerably, and prohibitively, the cost of wooden construction. France is really the only country in the world where concrete engineers are officially chosen to assess the risks associated with wood construction.
The road to sustainable construction and carbon sobriety is strewn with pitfalls; it calls into question decades of practice, comfortably installed positions. Let's hope that the public authorities will be able to find the balance and not kill in the bud all the initiatives of diversification in the choice of materials.