Rethinking Networks in Times of Transition Ecological, Energy and Social Issues

In 2021, the European Commission launched the “Fit for 55” package as part of its broader strategy to combat climate change. This legislative initiative sets a legally binding goal for the EU to cut net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. Achieving these EU-wide targets raises important questions about how local governments can reconcile top-down climate directives with bottom-up, context-specific and experimental approaches. In France’s construction sector, the gradual of thermal and environmental regulations (RT 2012 and RE 2020) has led to a proliferation of performance certification protocols in the building sector. These protocols aim to promote an exemplary model of environmental efficiency, integrated into the various stages of project design.

In response to this increasing dominance of environmental standards, a new local architectural trend is emerging – one that explores innovative, frugal, transgressive and often “out-of-standard” ecological practices. Initiatives such as La Preuve par 7, Bellastock, Le Grand 8, Méandre Etc, Plateau Urbain and Le Hangar Zéro exemplify emerging creative possibilities within experimental frameworks. Drawing on what Michel de Certeau termed “tactics of resistance,” these practices challenge the prevailing model of “green” standards in favor of alternative approaches to designing environmentally efficient buildings. However, in the absence of a suitable regulatory framework, these projects often evolve intuitively, operating on “trickery”2 and inventive margins of normative structures in order to accelerate implementation.

The growing interest of the French State in such experimental strategies is reflected in the institutionalization of new protocols allowing exemptions from standard building regulations, thus encouraging innovation. These can already be observed in laws such as Law on the Freedom of Creation, Architecture and Heritage (LCAP)3 and Law for a State at the Service of a Trusted Society (ESSOC)4, which aim to “simplify construction rules” to “facilitate project realization and foster innovation5”. This experimental framework lends legitimacy to the ongoing debate about the need for a legal system that can rethink environmental performance beyond the prescriptive boundaries of the Code de la construction eut de l’habitation, the foundation of French building regulation. But what are the implications when the law itself legitimizes exemption – effectively turning deviation from established norms into a new standard practice ?

In light of the urgent demands of the ecological transition, there is a growing need to adapt existing regulatory frameworks – such as RE 2020 – and institutional mechanisms for experimentation, including the ESSOC and LCAP laws, to better support innovative and experimental approaches in architecture. This shift calls for a deeper transformation in perspective : moving beyond the creation of ecological frameworks for individual projects towards cultivating an ecology of the project itself. In other words, can we begin to imagine a politically grounded, experimental ecological framework – one that acknowledges the complex interplay of human and non-human actors that bring a project into being ? Such a framework would create space for diverse ecological imaginaries to take shape, spanning from the hyperlocal to the global. This is the core ambition of this chapter. By proposing a broader structure for knowledge exchange, the research expands the representational scope of the CAST cartography of ecological imaginaries. It is grounded in the “out-ofstandard” experimental practices that define the architectural projects examined here. Ultimately, the ethnographic approach seeks to establish a shared platform for dialogue and critical reflection – one attuned to the evolving, everyday environmental challenges highlighted in recent IPCC reports.{}} }