Hypérion: Eiffage starts the construction of the tallest wooden residential tower in France

Eiffage Construction – an Eiffage group company – has commenced the construction works on Hypérion, an extraordinary wooden residential tower in the centre of Bordeaux in the new Euratlantique district. The project is developed by Eiffage Immobilier.

The Hypérion project is being developed using Building Information Modelling (BIM), a technology connecting 3D visualisation with a real-time interactive database collecting all information about the building during the design, construction and management processes.

The core (staircases and elevators), as well as the first three levels will be made of concrete. This rigid spine will be completed by a wooden structure of beams and poles. Floors and walls will be made from cross-laminated timber (CLT) – a type of engineered wood that provides greater strength than traditional timber. This material will make the entire structure much lighter so that no massive load-bearing walls will be necessary. The wooden walls will also allow the apartments to be easily expanded or contracted in the future, ensuring space arrangement mutability throughout the building’s lifetime.

The Hypérion tower will form an internal vertical street with apartments and vertical greenery arranged around it. Altogether, 176 apartments are planned in the project: 114 will be commercially available through Eiffage Immobilier and 62 will be sold to the social housing providers Clairsien (Group 3F) and Immobilière Atlantique Aménagement.

The Hypérion project will consist of:

• two residential buildings with a total of 176 apartments in an 18-storey wooden tower with a floor area of 7,000 m² and in a 9-storey apartment building,
• a 9-storey office building with a floor area of 5,000 m² with ground-floor commercial premises (the offices have already been commercialised to INEA Property Investor),
• an underground car park.

Hypérion exemplifies a new generation of buildings with low carbon footprint. The building’s shell will be entirely made of timber – a renewable material generating 25% lower CO2 emissions during the construction works as compared to concrete. Thus, the environmental impact of the works will be significantly reduced. The Hypérion project also subscribes to the energy-saving initiative NF Habitat aimed, i.a., at halving the carbon footprint of newly-developed buildings. The initiative uses a range of labelling systems, among them “Bbio -20%” (which means that the building’s energy efficiency is 20% higher than required by existing standards) and BBCA (“Bâtiment Bas Carbone”), confirming that low-emission materials and solutions have been applied during the design, construction or renovation and then management processes. All buildings in the Hypérion complex will be NF Habitat HQE 9* certified.

Another environmentally-friendly aspect of the project is plentiful greenery. Open green spaces accessible to all residents have been planned in the building together with a shared rooftop garden, enabling social integration. Also, private balcony gardens and vertical (hanging) gardens will be provided. In less accessible spaces on the roof, an urban jungle with abundant greenery and water features will be created.

Hypérion was designed by the architect office “Jean-Paul Viguier and Associates”. The construction works are scheduled to be completed in September 2020. Traditionally-constructed apartments will be ready for handover in January 2021 while the wooden tower will be delivered in May 2021.

NF Habitat HQE is a certification system for entire buildings or separate apartments looking into their environmental footprint, the residents’ quality of life and cost-effectiveness. The certification process is carried out first during the construction or renovation works and subsequently during the use. The label “NF Habitat HQE 9*” means that the project has reach the excellence level in terms of sustainability. The maximum number of stars is 12.

Eiffage group is one of the largest construction groups and concession operators in Europe. It employs approx. 65,000 people and has an annual turnover of EUR 16.6 billion. Worldwide, Eiffage is famous for its bold, ambitious and very demanding projects. Representatives of Eiffage group in Poland are Eiffage Polska Serwis, Eiffage Immobilier Polska and Eiffage Polska Budownictwo.