New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Initiative category

Identify the award category for which this initiative is being submitted
Shaping a circular industrial ecosystem and supporting life-cycle thinking

Email user
l.marleix@nci-studio.com

Basic information
Initiative title
La Ventil'

Full initiative Title
Transform french high schools into third places dedicated to circular and inclusive economies

Please provide a short, catchy description of your initiative to be used in communication towards the public.
La Ventil’ aims to create third places of educational innovation in French high schools. Our goal is to change how we teach technology and manufacturing by creating new pedagogy with circular and inclusive economies at its center to transform students into sustainability champions.

What was the geographical scope of your intiative?
Local

Where was your intiative implemented?
Member State(s) and Western Balkans
France

If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
Région Rhône-Alpes-Auvergne and Givors, Rhône 69700.

Does your initiative address mainly urban or rural issues?
Mainly urban

Does your initiative refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)

Has your initiative benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

Has your initiative won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Does your initiative has a minimum level of maturity? The minimum level of maturity is exemplified by stakeholder/ initiative promoter commitment to implement the initiative in practice and a clear methodology /approach.
Yes

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As a representative of an organisation
Please provide the contact details for the project promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the project)
- Name of the organisation(s): La Ventil'
  Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation
  First name of representative: Fabien
  Last name of representative: Tora
  Gender: Male
  Nationality: France
  Function: Teacher
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: 10 Chemin de la Côte à Cailloux
  Town: Givors
  Postal code: 69700
  Country: France
  Direct Tel: +33611297216
  E-mail: fabien.tora@ac-lyon.fr
  Website: https://la-ventil.com/
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
- URL: https://www.linkedin.com/company/la-ventil/
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): laventil
In case my initiative is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my initiative in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
Social Media

Description of the initiative
Please provide a summary of your initiative
La Ventil’ aims to create third places of educational innovation in French high schools.
Our goal is to change how we teach technology and manufacturing by creating new pedagogy with circular and inclusive economies at its center.
Our missions :
- Teach young citizens about the circular economy and the levers they have to reduce their footprint
Motivate students with an active pedagogy where they learn through experiments and teach each other
- Open high schools and weave the local territory around to share infrastructure, ressources, and propose services on three perimeters :
- share with other schools
- share with the professional realm
- share with local communities

Since 2019, 240 students, 2 teachers, 2 design agencies, 10 specialists (coach, psychologist, facilitator), and a city council have worked together to transform an unused workshop into a welcoming multipurpose place for the school and its local territory.

The students doing this project have 16 to 18 years old and are engaged in a diploma baccalauréat (a college bachelor's degree) science and technology of the industry and sustainable development.

During four years of whole co-design experiments, students, teachers, and designers imagined what a third place in school could do.
Today La Ventil’ is equipped with a fab lab, a repair cafe, a design room, a coworking space.

The desired outcomes of our initiative :
- Propose an active learning process for technical students during classes and create sustainability champions who can teach to other and have an impact in the long run
- Open the place to students or inhabitants outside class time to enhance curiosity and create an inclusive environment
Repairs and produce products created from recycled materials
- Share an open source digital solution to measure, help manage and duplicate the experiment

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with 5 key words.
circular economy

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
social and solidarity economy

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
third space in public education

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
active pedagogy and open badge

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
open source initiative

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of sustainability and how these have been/will be met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
- change the way school works by providing circular laboratories open to everyone
- involve students in a co-design process
- create sustainability champions by teaching them how materials and products are made, and how to repair and recycle them. Have a place where they can learn by doing and teach others as a result
- have a social impact by repairing for the inhabitants around and producing high-value products from waste

The initiative can be exemplary in this context because we propose to teach design process with non-designer students, in a city where there is no such initiative as fab lab or repair cafe and try to demonstrate that a school can be a social and sustainable economy hub.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
Design of the pilot project :
The main objective was to transform an unused dusty workshop into a great place where people would create together.
Students worked with an interior designer to co-design how to organize the third space and make it a comfortable place for everyone.

Design of the application :
The main objective is to equip public schools with a tailored solution for managing and measuring the impact of learning third spaces. We want to provide a well-made user experience for students' usage and an easy setup for teachers.
Students worked with a service and digital designer to co-design how to build the solution.

The initiative can be exemplary because we have involved students in the heart of the design process, a real user-centric approach where they can see the result.
Building our own physical space and a digital solution is considerable work. We demonstrate it is achievable by documenting it through our website, videos, design documents, and LinkedIn.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
- 15% of young adults are unemployed in Europe. In Givors, the city our pilot project, this number reached 25% in 2015. The city is one of the poorest in Lyon’s metropolitan area. High Schools are closed to their local communities, yet a lot of equipment could be helpful for associations in the surrounding city to organize workshops outside class times.

- Women in France do not choose technology degrees, with only 28% of female graduates. By opening our workshop and redefining the possibilities inside, we want to demonstrate technology degrees are helpful and can lead to other fields like design, sustainability, and social economy.

- 7/10 students in the 15-20-year-olds are unmotivated and feel like dropping out because of the Covid-19 crisis. We need to give better goals and engage more young citizens in their society.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the initiative and civil society have been/will be involved in the initiative and what has been/will be the impact of this involvement on the initiative
Citizens benefit from the initiative in many ways :
- with the repair café, they can have products repaired, so less impact on waste
- with the design room and fab lab, they can have access to software and machines they couldn't afford in two ways :
-- through open badges, they can access micro-training programs to use these softwares and machines.
-- through La Ventil students who can help entrepreneurs or inhabitants do their projects.
- with events at the coworking, they can learn about circular economy and how they can repair and recycle better.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the initiative.
Local territory :
- the region Rhône-Alpes Auvergne have edited a letter of support for our action in 2020
- regional education authority (rectorat) have edited a letter of support for our action in 2020
Management support :
- In 2023, the presidency of La Ventil’ as an independent association will be run by the OCCE, a major organization in France. It will manage and control all financial aspects of the project.
- Since 2019, another independent association, the ESPER, helps the project with its “social and solidarity economy in school” program and teaches the students how to shape the project more inclusively.
Design support :
- Each year, students work with designers to develop the circular design of La Ventil’.
- Design and development are made by NCI Studio, a design agency specialized in digital interfaces for sixteen years. the company helped with skill-based sponsorship and support for communication.
Financial support :
- The high school Aragon-Picasso finances the common infrastructure, teachers, and equipment
- The city of Givors has supported the project since 2021 by financing the repair cafe initiative
- In 2023, La Caisse des dépôts validated financial help to finance a stake of the application about 40K€, under the condition of the same amount of financial support.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your initiative. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was
La Ventil' is a cross disciplines project with :
- architecture and design : interior design, furniture design, process design, service design, product design, sustainable design
- engineering and technology : product engineering, electronics
- computer science : digital application
- public administration and education : run an association within a school, change ways of teaching and opening the school for various stakeholders
- business : how to propose local services
- communication : how to communicate and share the process of the experiment

Please highlight the innovative character of the initiative, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the initiative
In a classic french high school, students learn in regular classrooms and short projects during workshops with no purpose.
In our pilot project, students work together as a small design agency to bring social, solidarity, and sustainability values to the center of a long-run project for their local community.

Please describe which elements of your initiative could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and contexts. This may involve, for example, aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings, etc.
Our project started because public high schools like ours needed to implement “a fab lab” following a reform project from the ministry of education in 2019.
But what does it mean? In many cases, implementation is only one 3D printer in the corner of the room, and people need to learn how to run it!
That’s why we tried to think about how we could create value with this fab lab, and design iteration by design iteration ended up with La Ventil’.
With our pilot project, methodology, and our digital solution, we can duplicate and empower places like this.
There are 615 high schools with STI2D degrees in France that should have now been equipped with a fab lab.
Even if 10% can be interested in doing the same project, we can have a significant impact!

Open source, the digital solution can also be beneficial for independent third spaces and easy to create other learning communities around the world.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your initiative.
We have been working on this project step by step for four years :
In 2019 and 2020, the team co-designed the space and thought about what could benefit people around it. Students worked with interior designers, social and solidarity economy experts, and service designers.
In 2021, the team co-designed on a digital toolbox to make the services more accessible and manageable. How can we exchange services, ask for open badges, and see how students are progressing together. Students, teachers, third space consultants, service and UX designers were involved in writing specifications to make a tool tailored yet flexible for everyone.
At the end of 2022, the team launched a free repair cafe initiative with the city’s support and started making an impact! Students learned with specialists how to repair and organize collect in school and city to fix game controllers.
Due to its success, we will continue the repair cafe initiative in 2023 and plan to launch a recycling material space to enhance our circular design capabilities.
During four years, The students organized themselves as a cooperative. They have done assemblies to present the progress of La Ventil’, voting by a show of hands on the management system and the projects to come.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the initiative addresses by providing local solutions
As mentioned above, La Ventil' aims to propose a multipurpose learning third space in a poor and unequipped local community.
Through a school's infrastructure, we can provide tools to enhance our communities and make them more robust and resilient.

During the Covid-19 crisis; the fab lab has proved to be efficient as it has produced respirator parts for the nearby Saint-Etienne hospitals.

Please detail the scope of progress in the implementation of the initiative. This can include already demonstrated results/outputs related to the chosen Prizes category, and the already achieved benefits from the initiative for direct and indirect beneficiaries. This can also include a development plan of the initiative, with a particular attention to the steps envisaged in the year following the application, and including envisaged results and benefits from the initiative
Three prices rewarded our initiative in France in 2021 :
“Semeur d’innovation” from Crédit Mutuel rewarding inclusive, environmental, social, and solidarity economy projects.
“Mariannes de l’AMOPA” from "Les Palmes académiques" rewarding teamwork in schools
“the Construction Geniuses” rewarding the project for “best pedagogical approach.”

Co-design initiative :
Since 2019, 240 students, 2 teachers, 2 design agencies, 10 specialists were involved to shape the project

Production :
At the repair cafe, 12 students leaned how to repair Nintendo Switch game controllers. They taught 10 other students and inhabitants what they had learned. 70 controllers have been fixed, avoiding the same amount of lithium batteries and small electronics with rare earth thrown away. The experiment ran for two months in November and December 2022.
The fab lab has demonstrated its effectiveness during the COVID19 crisis by producing artificial respirator parts for hospitals.

Next step :
Demonstrate we can fix 930 more game controllers this year. It’s 1 controller fixed for 30 people living in the Givors area.
Open a recycling unit to transform plastic garbage into material and waste into products by working with local designers, design schools and industrial companies around the high school.
Launch the first proof of concept of the open source application, test it, and share a first version at the end of the year. We are still looking for funding to start the development.
Complete the refurbishment of the interior and outside space with the financial help of the Région Rhône-Alpes Auvergne.

You will find in the links :
- a video of three minutes presenting the project (subtitles are available in english)
- our website (in french sorry)
- a google drive link with support letters from public institution and design documentations made by partners

Please provide documents that demonstrate the maturity level of the initiative and commitment to implement the initiative in practice (e.g.: evaluation report, final or mid-term initiative report, certification, publications, building permit, grant agreement, letter of support, partnership agreement, etc.)
Web link
Web link
If relevant, please describe how your initiative contributes to developing new competences, especially in the context of the European competence framework on sustainability.
Detailed in the process above, La Ventil' is fully compatible with the European competence framework on sustainability.
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images or visual representations of your initiative to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below.
- LA VENTIL PRESENTATION 2023 ENGLISH.pdf
By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed initiative has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the initiative and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their initiatives, initiative, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted initiative, initiative is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes