GA Smart Building: a real estate developer, off-site construction pioneer, and building manager — reinventing the industry toward decarbonized real estate
For over 150 years, GA Smart Building has been inventing and innovating, placing itself as a truly atypical actor in the real estate world.
As a real estate developer, a pioneer in off-site construction, and a building manager, GA Smart Building offers a unique, global, and integrated approach, spanning:
- Real estate development
- Off-site design and construction
- Long-term management of smart and sustainable buildings
Our ambition is to be a dynamic group, a leader in off-site construction, and a catalyst for change in the real estate and construction industries — through listening, innovation, and always staying one step ahead.
GA Smart Building, developer and builder in the tertiary and residential sectors
As a real estate developer, GA Smart Building designs and anticipates the real estate of tomorrow in a world undergoing rapid transformation.
In response to climate change, biodiversity challenges, new user expectations for well-being, comfort, and connectivity, and the emergence of new work modes, we create:
- Housing, particularly via our Rooj by GA brand
- Office buildings
- Industrial facilities
- Logistics buildings (including large-scale, urban, and multi-level logistics)
- Hotels and serviced residences
- Healthcare facilities
- Educational institutions
All of these are designed to be more energy-efficient, inclusive, intelligent, and sustainable.
A French pioneer in off-site construction…
GA Smart Building is a forerunner in off-site construction in France and aspires to become the national champion of this innovative, sustainable method.
Our model involves digitally modeling (in BIM) all structural, façade, metalwork, and equipment components of a building before manufacturing them off-site in our nine French factories, then assembling them on site.
This industrialized process allows us to:
- Reduce material usage by nearly 50%
- Optimize material choices (e.g., wood, low-carbon concrete, biosourced materials)
- Foster reuse and ensure 100% recycling or recovery of waste in our factories
- Shorten delivery times by 20–30% compared to traditional methods — and up to 60% for modular timber construction (housing in just 12 to 18 months)
- Minimize site disruptions (less noise, dust, CO₂, and traffic)
- Improve building lifespan through flexibility and operational optimization
- Guarantee optimal safety and working conditions for employees
- Ensure execution quality and meet deadlines and cost commitments
… and also a property manager with GA Services
Through GA Services, our property management subsidiary, we offer customized, end-to-end, and long-term building management, whether or not the building was developed by GA.
Our local teams and digital tools ensure:
- High operational performance
- Regulatory compliance (e.g., Tertiary Decree)
- Environmental and financial efficiency
- Comfort and satisfaction for occupants and owners
GA Services is uniquely positioned to support building owners with Tertiary Decree compliance and other energy performance obligations.
GA Smart Building: a unique model for decarbonized real estate
The real estate industry bears a heavy responsibility and has a major impact on the planet, on cities, and on everyone’s quality of life: we spend 90% of our time in buildings, face rapid urbanization, and the construction sector is the largest consumer of energy.
Aware of the environmental impact of the real estate industry—and with environmental performance embedded in our DNA—we have placed the reduction of our CO₂ emissions at the heart of our action, in order to contribute to national carbon neutrality.
We have therefore been investing for many years in sustainable construction through:
The optimization of energy performance and building control, notably using artificial intelligence and machine learning
The reduction of the carbon footprint of our buildings
Concretely, our teams innovate and work daily to improve the carbon impact of their activities:
- Since 2015, delivery of the first BEPOS building (positive-energy smart building) in France: our former headquarters Agua in Toulouse
- Early participation in the E+C- label experiments, which paved the way for RE2020
- In 2018, acquisition of Ossabois to develop 100% timber or timber/concrete hybrid modular construction processes
- In 2020, development of Atom Wood, an off-site hybrid timber/concrete floor slab that won the Investments for the Future Program (PIA) innovation call launched by ADEME. It also received a “Coup de Cœur” mention from the Low-Carbon Prescribers Hub, supported by the French Institute for Building Performance (IFPEB)
- Development of Atom Concrete+, low-carbon concrete slabs using cork
- Development of ultra-low carbon concrete
- Creation in 2023 of the Smart Active System Lab to measure performance and continuously improve the Smart Active System, a combination of air treatment modules and active floor slabs. This solution allows local, renewable, and low-carbon energy sources to be hybridized in order to extract the best cost/carbon potential from each source, while factoring in building inertia, periods of vacancy, and deploying predictive control using artificial intelligence and machine learning. This project is supported by the France 2030 Investment Plan operated by ADEME and is being carried out in partnership with the CSTB.
