Laurent Biot is a qualified architect from Brussels (ULB). In addition to his work in Switzerland, he has worked in Senegal where he and his family lived for 4 years. There, he served as a consultant architect for the municipal team and the NGO Le Partenariat on heritage preservation projects (Unesco, World Heritage). Since a long journey in West and North Africa in the early 2000s, he has been advocating for the use of earth materials and solutions adapted to local conditions, solutions that he wants to make accessible to all. He enhanced his expertise with practical courses in bio-climatic architecture and completed a CAS in Regenerative Materials at ETH Zürich, where he met Antoine Denis. Together, they launched Terra9 Architecture and Development.

Laurent Biot is also a partner at SARC Spühler Biot Architektur in Zurich, where he focuses on reuse and resource optimization. He currently lives there with his wife and two children.

Antoine Denis is a Belgian architect with a particular interest in vernacular architecture and sustainable design. Extensive travels and cultural heritage have always been a major source of inspiration in his work. Driven by a passion for innovative and sustainable building materials, he pursued several training courses and workshops in this field and completed a CAS in Regenerative Materials and Earth Construction at ETH Zürich in 2021. Shortly afterwards, this academic pursuit culminated in joining Lehm Ton Erde (ERDEN) in Austria, the world leading rammed earth specialist builders and designers, where he collaborated with the renowned Martin Rauch.

Antoine returned to Zurich and co-founded Terra9 Architecture & Development with Laurent Biot, focusing on earth and bio-based construction solutions for a more sustainable future.

ETH Zürich Sustainable construction focuses in the use of earth-based, bio-sourced and reused building materials.

“The oldest way to build. Brand new.”
World's first prefabricated rammed earth building elements made of 100% earth.

BC materials produce & sell circular building materials, based on excavated earth.

Oxara specialises in the transformation of mineral construction waste into low carbon and circular building materials.

Created in 2010 in Senegal, ELEMENTERRE is a construction company specializing in earth construction systems.

Nubian vaults offer a holistic constructive solution for affordable earthen buildings.

Since 2010, the founders of the FACT Sahel+ network have been active partners, pooling their efforts and knowledge.