L’éco-hameau du Pic au Vent à Tournai (Belgique), une expérience d’éco-habitat partagé

The Pic au Vent ecohamlet is a pilot project carried out between 2008 and 2018 in Tournai (Belgium). A hundred people live there in 42 homes built around a garden, a vegetable patch and a community house. This project was led by two architects who wanted to show how it was possible to build low-cost, ecological and energy-efficient houses by proposing an alternative urban planning that would promote exchanges between inhabitants and respect for the environment. The ecohamlet was built in three phases. First, 20 patio houses,then 14 garden houses, then 8 balcony houses. Construction techniques have been developed to reduce the cost of construction while reaching the “passive†standard in terms of energy. This shared eco-housing project is the result of more than thirty years of research, exchanges.