GrünboX-Vienne transforms a disused industrial building through circular economy principles and sober design, achieving significant CO₂ and water savings while proposing a replicable model for sustainable urban regeneration.
GrünboX-Vienne originates from a historic textile building left abandoned for more than twenty years, with the ambition of integrating a diversity of uses — coworking spaces, a 'Third Place', a fitness room and unconventional accommodation — under a framework of deep sustainability. Unlike approaches based on complex technologies, the project deploys a strategy centred on sobriety and reuse. The intervention draws on the concept of urban mining: reclaimed and recycled materials sourced from specialised platforms and second-hand markets are used extensively in finishes and structures, involving elements of self-build to integrate them, thereby demonstrating a commitment to circularity beyond rhetoric.
Life cycle assessments associated with the project indicate a reduction of around two-thirds in embodied CO₂ emissions — approximately 1 t/m² compared with a new building of the same volume — and water savings of around 25%, equivalent to some 10,000 m³, figures that reflect the effectiveness of the sober and local approach. Water management follows a 'sponge city' logic, combining rainwater collection and storage for everyday uses with exploration of traditional adiabatic cooling techniques supported by the thermal inertia of the terrain and the site’s specific conditions.
The distinctive value of GrünboX-Vienne lies in its social and urban model: the permeability of uses allows residents, entrepreneurs and the wider community to intervene and adapt the space, reinforcing active citizenship. This approach demonstrates that sustainability can be both technical and social, offering a benchmark for environmentally responsible and culturally integrative regeneration of industrial heritage.
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