GC Department Projects

Gardian's Cabin

La Cabane de Gardian is a project designed and built by civil engineering students at the IUT de Nîmes as part of their final-year project since 2009. Its goal is to present an alternative sustainable building model to the current one, which has been called into question by constantly rising energy costs, as well as to train students in renewable energy.

The Project

With a floor area of 20.82 m², the cabin is divided into two sections:

• A living space designed to serve an educational purpose in relation to the existing facilities.
• A technical room used as a laboratory for student experiments.

Equipment

• For heating: a low-temperature radiant floor heating system powered by a solar thermal panel, as well as a heat pump.
• For ventilation: a combination of a heat recovery shaft and a dual-flow mechanical ventilation system.
• For electricity: Photovoltaic solar panels will meet the needs of the cabin and provide lighting for the faculty parking lot, but there will be no connection to the EDF grid.

Construction

• Reinforced Concrete Slab Foundations
• Foundation made of precast concrete blocks
• Reinforced concrete slab laid on a layer of sand
• Wood-frame structure with OSB panels
• Interior wall and ceiling insulation with Métisse®, an insulation material made from recycled used textiles, which is just as effective as glass wool
• Wooden Bungalows

Accessibility Project

The Civil Engineering Department at the IUT of Nîmes has been nominated for the 6th annual Handi-Friends Awards, which recognize initiatives by higher education institutions aimed at promoting the independence and inclusion of students with disabilities. This year, nearly 40 applications were received and submitted to the Handi-Friends Awards jury, which nominated three projects in each category: Handi-Integration, Handi-Awareness, and Handi-Innovation.

The project presented by the Civil Engineering Department is the “Accessible Housing Technical Platform,” which was selected in the Disability Awareness category.

Batim’handicap

On November 21, 2016, the Nîmes University Institute of Technology (IUT) inaugurated its “Bâtim’Handicap” technical platform for accessible housing in the presence of several prominent figures from academia, politics, and the construction industry.

This platform, designed to test accessibility features for people with disabilities, was conceived and developed by students in the Civil Engineering (GC) department in collaboration with the Electrical Engineering and Industrial Computer Science (GEII) and Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing Technology (GMP) departments.