Hybrid Architect here, recently moved to the Poitou area. My focus is on merging 20th-century heritage (1900+ builds) with 21st-century sovereign tech. I’ve spent the last year optimizing a ‘Maison de Maître’ for remote work, specifically focusing on fiber optic stability, smart-heating efficiency, and land equity.
I’m moving towards a new project soon, but I’ve spent a significant amount of time documenting the technical hurdles of rural renovation—from DPE (EPC like) inaccuracies to real-world fiber throughput.
Looking forward to sharing data and discussing the ‘Smart-Ready’ transition in old French properties.
If you were looking at 1750’s heritage that would be interesting - metre thick stone walls have been a bit of a barrier to us. Do 20th century builds pose similar problems?
Fair point. 1750s builds often suffer from Signal Decay and thermal dampness due to irregular rubble-fill construction.
1912 builds are a different breed of engineering. You get the best of both worlds: 50-60cm solid stone walls (Thermal Mass) but with the structural regularity of 20th-century masonry. To solve the barrier problem, I’ve approached this house like a network topology:
The walls aren’t a barrier if the backbone is Fiber. I’ve mapped the Wi-Fi distribution to ensure the stone acts as an insulator for heat, not a kill-switch for data.
Unlike 18th-century meter-thick walls which can stay cold/damp all year, 1912 masonry handles moisture and heat-cycling much more predictably.
It’s effectively a legacy shell with a modern Kernel. If you’re near the Vienne area, the data in my technical ledger might change your perspective on 20th-century stone (i hope so )
My old house was built in the 1600’s, metre thick granite walls, no foundations and the animals lived with the humans indoors hence the lit clos beds. We had trouble with mobile phone use getting through and the FREE engineer said his house had the same in the next dept and was very old too. No problem with fibre optique in this new build thankfully. Don’t forget that al projects have to get approval first if they affect the structure, outside and habitation space changes and if near the Monuments Historiques
I’m not sure how old my house is (neither was the notaire) but the walls are too thick for wifi, which is an inconvenience because my home office is in a dépendance. There is a chaufferie housing the gas boiler, tumble dryer, a freezer, etc… which also separates the house from the dépendance. My house is quite narrow but long.
Orange gave me a repeater which I installed in the dépendance but, as expected, it’s not sufficient for my needs. So my next step is to physically extend the network out to the dépendance, where I’ll terminate it into an unmanaged switch and then connect a wireless access point (using the same SSID and password as my Orange Livebox in the main house so I can switch networks seamlessly).
I was going to just use cat6 for this, but now I’m thinking I might just deploy fibre. I’m tempted by the Huawei FTTR kit that’s coming out soon as the cable is <1mm thick, so will pass the ‘wife acceptance factor’.
However it looks like that’s designed for indoor use only, whereas I was hoping to use conduit to route the cable across my courtyard instead of drilling through numerous walls. I’m not worried about UV exposure but more that the conduit could get humid and cause the cable to deteriorate. So maybe I’ll need to get thicker cable that can cope with being outside, and just get some SFPs and media converters instead of the Huawei kit.
Did you connect any external buildings in your case? Keen to learn what you used, if so. Also any recommendations on where to source from? I’m probably looking at using fs.com currently but open to suggestions of other sites.
Good points. The Monuments Historiques overhead can indeed be a structural friction point for the unwary.
Regarding my 1912 build, while we’re in the vicinity of the Abbaye de la Réau, I’ve already audited the PLU (Plan Local d’Urbanisme) and the perimeter constraints. For this specific plot, the structural requirements are standard, allowing for modern optimizations without the heavy administrative lag often found in 17th century protected shells.
It’s a critical distinction, investing in heritage is fine, but investing in manageable heritage is better for ROI and sanity
If you’re looking at FS.com and SFP modules, you’re already ahead of 99% of rural users
Regarding your setup,I didn’t need to link external buildings as the 144m2 envelope was sufficient, but I did opt for a local repeater on the ground floor to maintain sub 10ms latency for my workstation.
A few thoughts on your dependance link…
- Forget 4G/LTE: If you value stability for a home office, a cellular bridge will be a bottleneck (jitter and CGNAT issues).
-Fiber vs Cat6: You’re right about humidity—optical fiber is immune to EMI and oxidation. However, the Huawei FTTR (indoor) cable is too fragile for conduits. If you go fiber, use pre-terminated Armoured Patch Cables (Singlemode OS2). They handle the conduit life and rodents much better.
IMO, given the distance, a point-to-point Wireless Bridge (like Ubiquiti building bridge) could save you the trenching (digging) while maintaining near-gigabit speeds
Stick to the hardwired philosophy. Trenching is a pain once, but a solid backbone for life!
Trombe walls are efficient for solar gain, but I haven’t implemented one here. On a 1912 build with +50cm stone walls, the thermal inertia of the stone itself acts as a natural heat battery. My focus was on optimizing the existing envelope, like high-performance double glazing and smart management of the inertial mass rather than adding a passive solar collector that would compromise the architectural integrity of the facade
In this region, managing the lag of the stone is usually more effective than retrofitting a Trombe system.
Doesn’t really exist, high performance is triple glazing or V glass if you can afford it.
Regarding the thermal mass, the problem is it’s giving off the absorbed heat in both directions depending on what’s cooler. I believe it’s time to move away from too much architectural history and time to build smarter. Keep the odd old one to look at but the majority to be improved.
Point taken on the U-values. While triple glazing or vacuum glass offers superior insulation, the structural load and ROI on a +1900 stone frame often dictate a more balanced approach—high-spec double glazing remains the sweet spot for heritage optimization without compromising the masonry’s integrity. Regarding thermal mass, correct, heat flows to the coolest sink. That’s exactly why the ‘smart management’ I mentioned is critical. By controlling the internal temperature gradients and air-flow, we minimize the outward radiation.
Moving away from architectural history is one philosophy; my approach is hybrid. We don’t need to rebuild the world to make it efficient but existing infrastructure with modern digital and thermal kernels. History has inertia, I prefer to use it as an asset rather than fight it
….maybe then you can provide some decent arguments why (for example) fridges need to be connected to some sort of ‘smart device’?
…I had to read your posts a few times and research what you were writing about and realise that you were mainly talking about IT stuff and 1900’s buildings yes??…I used to be an ‘architect’ and never really understood why the IT crowd (no pun intended) borrowed the name for its own use and so also can explain what ‘hybrid architect is ‘ for my own selfish education.
Well - I look forward to reading your reply whilst I mix up another batch of hemp/lime for use as a thermal corrector on my 1m stone walls - they are indeed useless in the summer and useless in the winter for keeping heat in and out.
That made me laugh! Our previous 18th C house was toasty as stone walls were correctly built and jointed, the current one which was reworked in 1910 is a damp mess as they used cement not lime.
Fair point on the terminology! We ‘IT people’ tend to borrow grand titles to make our lines of code feel more structural. To be honest, I’m not interested in smart fridges either—I still haven’t figured out why my milk would need an IP address. For me, being a ‘Hybrid Architect’ is just a fancy way of saying I try to make old stone and fiber optic live together without fighting.
I actually have a lot of respect for the hemp/lime approach, it’s the original thermal patch. While you’re working on the physical correction of those 1m walls, I’m just using a few sensors to try and outsmart the thermal lag. Two different tools, same goal: not freezing in the winter!
Good luck with the mixing, that’s definitely more hardcore than my keyboard work
Ouch, the cement Trap. That’s the silent killer of early 20th century renovations…
You’re 100% right! Switching from lime to cement without managing the hygrometry is a recipe for disaster. It’s the equivalent of putting a non-breathable plastic bag over a high-end server…it’s going to overheat and fail. Fortunately, my old shell hasn’t been reworke with modern cement seals. The masonry is still breathing as intended, and I’ve backed that up with smart humidity monitoring.
There’s a fine line between solid build and sealed tomb, and I made sure I was on the right side of it!
Nice one!…I still recall doing interstitial condensation calculations long hand and working out where the dew points might occur….really dull believe me.
Our place here…with the seriously thick walls has been extensively modified with double height spaces and big open plan areas so even the 5g signal penetrates so luckily….no need for fibre here…apart from for breakfast miam
The title of this thread caught my eye and I was intrigued as to why someone would wish to try and make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.
Having carefully read the entire thread I have to admit to not really being any the wiser as I have clearly lived too long to be able to understand half of the terminology used.
Sometimes I think that a lot of this tech stuff is just done simply because someone can. I mean, why does my washing washing machine have the ability to connect to a smartphone to provide 60 additional washing programs.
Might be a stupid question from an uninformed dinosaur, but if one wishes to connect two different bits of kit together wouldn’t it be cheaper to just drill some holes and lay a cable. I mean, one would still have the drill to use another day as and when required.
My nipper makes a living installing this sort of stuff. One day I asked him “So why don’t you drill to the outside, run a cable along the building outside, and then drill back to the inside where needed?”
His response, “We don’t make so much profit doing it that way.”
I suppose my fundamental question is why is it necessary to have all this internet capability in every part of the dwelling. If I want to make a cup of tea I go to the kitchen because that is where the kettle is situated. When I wish to use the internet I go to the room where the computer is to be found.
I reckon that the person who first invented the TV remote control has a lot for which to answer.
Enjoy your old house for what it is, with all its foibles, charm, and ‘features of the building’, and if it’s unsuitable for your needs, then go and buy a new one.
My 1600’s home got too hot in winter sometimes as once the walls heated up from the wood burner they stayed warm for days on end. In summer the house was cool as it was not standard to have windows in the rear of those and the windows were/are small as per the traditional build of Bretagne
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We ‘IT people’ tend to borrow grand titles to make our lines of code feel more structural. To be honest, I’m not interested in smart fridges either—I still haven’t figured out why my milk would need an IP address. For me, being a ‘Hybrid Architect’ is just a fancy way of saying I try to make old stone and fiber optic live together without fighting.
miam