So-called « low-tech » technologies are useful, sustainable, and accessible solutions designed to meet the fundamental needs of individuals or communities (water, food, energy) while minimizing their environmental impact. Some examples are solar ovens or pedal-powered machines. For nearly ten years, the Low-Tech Lab association has been managing a collaborative platform to document and share innovations in this field. Their “Biosphere” program aims to test an autonomous and sustainable lifestyle based on these low-tech innovations. The first experiment took place in 2018 on a floating platform in Thailand, followed a few years later by another in the Mexican desert, where a circular habitat—designed to generate resources rather than waste and developed in collaboration with a multidisciplinary network of experts (ranging from doctors to nutritionists to eco-designers)—was tested and inhabited for four months.

In 2024, a new milestone was reached with the creation of the Biosphère Experience association, which aims to test, for the first time, these learnings in a dense urban environment, in the Paris region. For four months (from July to November), a 25 m² apartment in Boulogne-Billancourt became the home of a French engineer and a Belgian eco-designer, as well as a living laboratory for experimenting with a sustainable and self-sufficient lifestyle. The objectives—successfully achieved—were to reduce water consumption tenfold; to produce no waste but to generate resources, and to meet the UN target of 2 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year per person on Earth. The apartment was made available by the city in a former daycare center and functioned as a true experimentation hub, bringing together experts, engineering schools, and companies to co-create and test various low-tech solutions. In parallel with the low-tech apartment, the association launched a citizen science program allowing participants to test these low-tech systems and practices in their homes. This initiative included eight thematic missions, ranging from sustainable food to waste recovery. More than 650 experiments were carried out across France and internationally. For instance, some experiments focused on soil-free indoor gardening solutions for growing microgreens using bioponics; on breeding edible insects, such as crickets, as a sustainable food alternative; and on testing composting toilets designed to recover and repurpose human waste to enrich the soil.

The apartment experiment was dismantled at the end of the trial period in December 2024, and the collected data is currently being analyzed. The results, along with insights from the many citizen-led experiments, will be invaluable in assessing the effectiveness of the implemented solutions and inspiring other urban initiatives. In the meantime, there’s no need to wait to start raising your own larvae for organic waste recycling (honestly, I’m very curious about this!). All information and tutorials on these experiments are available here: wiki.lowtechlab.org.