Junior Tchiotsop, a third-year PhD student at GeM in the IEG team of the University of Nantes, has been awarded a 2021 Palladio grant worth €10,000.
The grant rewards his work on the energy performance of raw-earth buildings, carried out under the supervision of Stéphanie Bonnet, with Philippe Poullain and Nabil Issaadi.
Junior’s thesis, entitled “Controlling the multi-scale variability of the hygrothermal properties of cob buildings for more reliable energy prediction”, is funded by ADEME and the Pays de la Loire Region. His work is also supported by IRSTV (FR2488), with the thesis featured in the CODIUM research area.
Thesis abstract:
Raw-earth buildings are part of humanity’s heritage. Today, around 30% of the world’s population lives in raw-earth buildings, in a wide variety of vernacular architectures. Despite their low mechanical strength, they have excellent thermal inertia, are excellent humidity regulators and contribute very actively to today’s environmental challenges. As traditional cob construction is a non-mechanised process, it leads to variability in the material’s properties. The aim of this thesis is to estimate this variability experimentally, first at the material scale and then at the wall scale. By coupling deterministic and stochastic approaches, we will then be able to predict the energy needs of a cob building.
The grant programme of the Fondation Palladio aims to support young people (students, PhD students and post-docs, from France and abroad) by giving them the means to carry out their higher education or research projects in fields directly related to the real-estate industry and city building. Projects must be sponsored by a French and/or foreign higher education and research institution and may be supported by a company in the sector.
Missions and actions
To make cities as humane, liveable, sustainable, inclusive and value-creating as possible, the Palladio Foundation works directly with those who build or will build the city, creating the support tools needed for collective commitment (Université de la Ville de Demain), reflection (Institut Palladio), preparing the next generation (Pôle Avenir Palladio) and anticipation (Connecteur Innovation-Recherche Palladio).
By bringing together the perspectives of economic and political decision-makers, executives and experts, students and professionals, academic and industrial researchers, each of the Foundation’s actions helps foster questioning, open-mindedness and mutual enrichment. The Foundation seeks to create the conditions for every real-estate and urban stakeholder to be ever better able to meet today’s and tomorrow’s major economic, environmental, social and societal challenges.