Housing at the Heart of Quality of (City) Life

At the ANAH plenary session held on November 17, 2022, Franck Boutté spoke on the theme of “Housing at the Heart of Quality of (City) Life,” and was asked about the concept of sobriety.

“Initially, sobriety was a matter of quantity: being sober was about making less, doing less, not being excessive... But if we apply it to housing, you have to be careful, because the qualities we expect from the place we live often imply more not less: everyone wants high ceilings, big windows, large homes, spacious rooms... Bigger implies more empty space, but it also requires more materials, so in the end it’s about doing and having more and not being sober at all. A super-sober home has low ceilings, isn’t large, is compact, and has few windows. Everything is a pursuit of balance.” – Franck Boutté

→ The mission of the Agence nationale de l’habitat (National Housing Agency, ANAH) is to improve existing private housing stock. It grants financial assistance for renovation when certain conditions are met to owner-occupiers, lessors, and condominiums in difficulty.

It takes efforts against substandard and degraded housing, deals with condominiums in difficulty, combats fuel poverty, carries out energy renovation work, adapts housing to loss of autonomy, adapts housing to disability, habitation, insulation, and more.

→ To see the entire conference again, click here (Franck Boutté’s speech starts at 2 hr15 min. in).

Alongside Stephan de Fay, Stéphanie Dupuy-Lyon, Christine Leconte, and Valérie Mancret-Taylor.