A groundbreaking housing development in Bordeaux, France, has successfully combined traditional architectural elements with modern construction techniques, creating an innovative residential project that honors the city's historic building traditions while meeting contemporary housing needs. The Les Échoppes Bastide Housing project, designed by eliet&lehmann architectes and completed in 2025, represents a significant achievement in sustainable urban development.
The project was commissioned by EL Promotion through the public development agency Établissement public d'Aménagement Euratlantique. Located on the right bank of Bordeaux, north of the Garonne-Eiffel development zone, the development sits adjacent to the historic Bastide neighborhood, famously known as the "stone city." This strategic positioning allows the new construction to seamlessly integrate with the existing urban fabric while respecting the area's architectural heritage.
The development consists primarily of terraced townhouses that reinterpret the traditional Bordeaux échoppes, a distinctive local housing type. What sets this project apart is its construction methodology - every building and fence is constructed entirely from solid stone blocks that are 28 centimeters thick. This substantial construction technique not only provides excellent thermal mass and durability but also maintains visual continuity with the historic stone architecture of the surrounding neighborhood.
Following a straightforward urban layout, the houses feature direct street access with private gardens and open ground space on the opposite facade. The ground floors are elevated by several steps, while accessibility for people with reduced mobility is thoughtfully provided from the garden side. The houses are specifically designed for families, offering relatively generous floor areas that can be adapted to various household sizes.
The basic house model is a T4 R+1 configuration, featuring three bedrooms across two stories with a total area of 84 square meters. However, the design allows for flexible expansion options. Homeowners can choose partial or full extensions to R+2, transforming their homes into either T5 units of 106 square meters or T6 units spanning 122 square meters. This adaptability ensures that the housing can evolve with changing family needs over time.
A particularly innovative aspect of the development is the inclusion of seven "affordable" houses built on a narrow 3.60-meter framework. Despite their compact footprint, these homes maintain the same high-quality spatial and construction standards as the larger units while being grouped more efficiently on smaller plots. This configuration enables the production of genuinely individual houses at an exceptionally attractive price point, with these 80-square-meter homes selling for €230,000 including 5.5% VAT.
To complement the townhouses and achieve optimal density, several collective buildings complete the development. These structures provide smaller housing units, predominantly T2 apartments with generous floor areas that face south toward a central park. This mixed typology of townhouses and apartment buildings allows the project to achieve a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of approximately 1.2, significantly higher than traditional échoppe neighborhoods while maintaining the human scale and character of the historic district.
The construction methodology represents a remarkable fusion of traditional materials with modern techniques. All façades and fences utilize 28-centimeter-thick load-bearing solid stone construction. The natural stone material is "geo-sourced," requiring no firing or chemical mixing, which dramatically reduces the energy consumption associated with its production. The construction process involves cutting natural stone blocks at the quarry according to detailed layout plans designed by the architects, then simply stacking them on-site.
This stone construction approach is comparable to off-site prefabrication in terms of efficiency and precision. Modern lifting equipment capable of handling large stone blocks has given this ancient building technique renewed relevance in contemporary construction. The method not only reduces construction time and waste but also ensures exceptional build quality and longevity.
The project represents a successful model for sustainable urban development that respects local architectural traditions while addressing modern housing challenges. By combining traditional materials and forms with contemporary planning principles and construction technologies, Les Échoppes Bastide Housing demonstrates how historic building techniques can be adapted for 21st-century living while maintaining environmental responsibility and cultural continuity.
