“Our roommate is called ‘Aubergine’, it’s a mix between the name of a plant, for ecology, and the idea of a Spanish inn. “Pau delivers the anecdote by pointing to a smiling eggplant-shaped plush, “our mascot”, he adds. It sits proudly on a piece of furniture covered with green plants, like the apartment overgrown with potted trees and vegetables. Pau, Camille, Juliette, Typhaine, Laura and Samuel, all close to their thirties, have chosen to set up an eco-shared apartment. A way to share a way of life in accordance with their environmental concerns.
Their 130 square meters, located at Porte Dorée in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, includes a kitchen, a dormitory, two other rooms, and above all a large living room where they spend all their time. “We live together, not just in the same place, insists Pau. It requires more involvement than in a normal roommate. They have three bedrooms, but five of them sleep in the same room to “have more shared spaces”.
In Ile-de-France, they are far from the only ones to have had this idea. On Facebook, the group Eco-sharing Paris – Ile-de-France », intended for those who seek or offer such a flatshare, now has 18,300 members. “Most of them are around 25 years old,” said the group’s administrator, Lise Ketterer.
What recovery
Here, there is no question of buying new. The apartment has been furnished by recycling. The entrance is covered by a large red carpet, oriental style. “He comes from the street,” says Pau, laughing. “Juliette always finds crazy things while walking,” adds Tiphaine. She brought it back, cut off the moldy part, then spent days sewing it back on by hand. Tatami mats, another find from Juliette, have replaced the table and chairs in the living room.
The other furniture was salvaged or made. “We have two roommates who are a bit of a do-it-yourselfer,” adds one of the eco-roommates. Samuel built our dormitory for example. He walks towards a bedroom door, then reveals a large wooden structure. Planks were assembled to create bunk beds, intended to accommodate six people. “This is where we sleep, all five of us,” says Camille.
“But if you want privacy, you can also find it,” adds Pau. The roommates have a dedicated room, the “love room”, which “can be used for moments of intimacy, but also for watching films, or even playing music”.
“No need to be a fervent green”
“Living together is already an ecological approach,” explains Pau. This means less waste, and more pooling. The members of eco-colocation agree on their ecological considerations. All travel by bicycle, share a commitment to an association for the maintenance of peasant agriculture (AMAP), which provides them with a basket of vegetables each week, and have a predominantly vegetarian diet.
“We learn a lot from others,” says Camille. We don’t all have the same level of ecological awareness, the same habits. “The profiles remain similar. Pau works in a social and solidarity enterprise (ESS), Laura in the reception of unaccompanied minors, two other roommates are intermittent, in the social field. As for Typhaine, she is doing a thesis on the impact of climate change at the Mines de Paris. To be part of the roommate, “no need to be a fervent greener, reassures Camille. A person with a bit of curiosity about the subject is fine with us. »
In the future, the roommates do not see themselves living any other way. Camille “finds it hard to imagine living alone or as a couple”. Typhaine, meanwhile, already knows that she will end up living “in Ardèche or in Drôme, where there are more and more people who live in communities”. In these regions, some come together to live in ecovillages.