APALA, think & do tank for the transitions since 2013

Initiated by the association APALA, the event aimed to ‘create bridges between the scientific, professional and public worlds, with the low-tech approach as a backdrop’.
Over four days, more than 1,500 people crossed paths, coming to listen to more than 150 different speakers. Some thirty talks punctuated the festival, streamed and still available today on YouTube. Read the full article >>

From today until Sunday, Alternatiba is setting up its climate camp in the Doulon district of Nantes. The event is open to seasoned activists and the general public alike. How do you block a road or an airport? How should you behave towards the police? How do you communicate about your action? Climate activists hope to find answers to all these questions at this climate camp. Organised nationally and held for the third time in Nantes,... Read the full article >> Presse Océan article

On 22 June 2023, the low-tech world comes to the Halle 6 Ouest in Nantes for four days of debates and reflection. A chance to discover how technology can be simpler and more sustainable. Explanations from Jonathan Guéguen of the association APALA, organiser of the event.  Read the full article >>

The first low-tech festival in Nantes, conceived by the Apala collective and open to all, will take place on the île de Nantes from 22 to 25 June. It will focus on sustainable solutions that are easy to put into practice in everyday life... Read the full article >>

Low-tech brings together frugal innovations in energy that are simple, readily available to everyone, and durable. Long centred on community-based models, this approach is now making its way into more and more companies and sectors, particularly in western France, where organisations support businesses.... Read the full article >>

These players are engineers who want to practise their profession a little differently. Since January 2021, APALA has been based at L’Agronaute on the île de Nantes, where a space is dedicated to alternative and innovative projects, bringing together people from scientific and technical backgrounds (thermal engineering, building, renewable energies).... Read the full article >>

The low-tech festival, organised by the association APALA (Aux Petits Acteurs L'Avenir), will take place from 22 to 25 June at the Halle 6 Ouest in Nantes. The four-day programme includes talks, debates, workshops and a careers village, to go beyond the concept together.
A scientific approach combined with a critical mind takes centre stage in tackling... Read the full article >>

With Marie le Douaran, from the Nantes magazine Les Autres Possibles, every week, committed, sustainable and community-minded addresses... Low tech in French means ‘low technology’. Technologies developed to be simple, durable and open to appropriation by everyone. To discuss it, let us look at the work of the association Apala, which is based in Nantes. Apala is the acronym for... Read the full article >>

On Tuesday 21 March 2023, the 1st Low-Tech Forum will be held at Centrale Nantes, bringing together local stakeholders, students, teachers from schools in Nantes and the region, and companies interested in the approach. On the programme: talks, round tables, student projects... Read the full article >>

The low-tech approach is gaining ground in higher education this 2022-2023 academic year. The école Centrales Nantes is launching a low-tech option in which six students are taking part, while the Institut polytechnique de Grenoble (INP) continues its programme with the low-tech approach as its common thread. Read the full article >>

Arriving at the Apala premises is a condensed version of contemporary urban life. To reach them, you must navigate the heavy traffic of the old city of the Dukes of Brittany, plunge into the port area of the île de Nantes, now a flourishing industrial wasteland, and enter beneath the old greenhouses of the market of [...] Read the full article >>

The association, based at the Agronaute on the île de Nantes, is supporting the shift towards accessible and sustainable innovations being made by the école Centrale. It is helping the students who have embarked on the interior fit-out of the boat ‘We Explore’ belonging to skipper Roland Jourdain. Read the full article >>

The search for a sustainable way of life and the desire to commit to the environment led Jonathan Gueguen and other people from scientific backgrounds to take an interest in food. Realising the considerable impact of food and the global food production system, they began research in collaboration with specialist researchers in these fields, as well as with universities. Read the full article >>

Alone we go faster, but together we go further. The collaboration we are about to present here is a perfect example of this adage, which we particularly appreciate at the Low-tech Lab. Read the full article >>

Members of the association Apala, Antoine Cousin and Germain Garry are behind an unusual construction. They have designed a dome intended for growing local seeds. ...Read the full article >>

Antoine Cousin and Germain Garry with the vegetables grown from their seeds, in front of their nursery dome.

APALA was born in 2013 from a group of friends with around ten different profiles, from scientific and technical backgrounds, to tackle environmental challenges. ‘I told myself that if we did nothing now, we would remember that we had ideals during our studies and that we had done nothing with them,’ explains Jonathan Guéguen.... Listen to the podcast >>

With Marie le Douaran, from the Nantes magazine Les Autres Possibles, every week, committed, sustainable and community-minded places... Low tech in French means ‘low technology’. Technologies developed to be simple, durable and open to appropriation by everyone. To discuss it, let us look at the work of the association ... Listen to the podcast >>

These players are engineers who want to practise their profession a little differently. Since January 2021, APALA has been based at L’Agronaute on the île de Nantes, where a space is ... Listen to the podcast >>

The IPCC published a new report at the end of February warning of the consequences of climate change, and the probability that we will reach a 1.5 degree Celsius increase is greater than 50%. To what extent does livestock farming contribute to ... Listen to the podcast >>

What if tomorrow our society were more low-tech: what would our organisations look like in a world more respectful of people and the planet? To answer this question, the Low-tech Lab has launched ... Listen to the podcast >>