Denis Caraire

Co-founder | Chief Impact Officer

YIMBY urban planner

A recognised expert in public housing policy and urban regeneration. He has headed several organisations in the SOLIHA movement (a French non-profit network for housing improvement).

In 2016, he joined Villes Vivantes to multiply tenfold the leverage — which he considers woefully inadequate — of public schemes aimed at improving privately owned housing.

The spirit of public service, of service to the public, is ingrained in him. And he passes it on to the teams.
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He has learned that renovating buildings at scale will depend on delivering a bespoke service at scale.
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He has understood that solving housing for older people means finding the solution for housing young people.
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He knows that it is not big projects that shape areas. But the millions of micro-projects.
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He supports local authorities in drawing up their housing strategy. Then in actually putting it into practice. All over France.
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He is the point of contact between institutions and the professional community.
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His publications

Scientific publications

✼ Caraire, D., Lempérière, P. & Miet, D. (2019, December). La prise en compte des performances énergétiques dans la conception des projets BIMBY & BUNTI [Taking energy performance into account in the design of BIMBY & BUNTI projects]. vvcodes, December 2019.

✼ Caraire, D., Lempérière, P. & Miet, D. (2019, December). Quel modèle économique du BIMBY & BUNTI dans le territoire du SCoT des Vosges Centrales? [What business model for BIMBY & BUNTI in the area covered by the Vosges Centrales SCoT (a French sub-regional strategic plan)?]. vvcodes, December 2019.

✼ Hanss, T., Hernandez, A., Lempérière, P., Miet, D. & Caraire, D. (2018). BAMBA, un projet de recherche & développement open source [BAMBA, an open-source research & development project]. vvcodes, March 2021.

Public reports and hearings

✼ Caraire, D. (2011, April). Sensibilisation des acteurs institutionnels à une approche élargie de la précarité énergétique [Raising institutional stakeholders’ awareness of a broader approach to fuel poverty]. Final report. PREBAT (PUCA, ANAH, ADEME).

✼ Caraire, D. & Hamelin, P. (2010). Amélioration de la performance énergétique des logements: habiter mieux, aider plus, dépenser moins… [Improving the energy performance of housing: living better, helping more, spending less…]. Research consultation. PREBAT – PUCA.

Books and book chapters

✼ Caraire, D., Miet, D. & Vigneron, R. (2019). BIMBY: modeling, civic empowerment and the invention of a new profession. In Participatory Design Theory. Routledge.

Organic Cities proceedings

✼ Hernandez, A. & Caraire, D. (2024, 18 January). BIMBY et BUNTI: faire des habitants les maîtres d’ouvrage de la transformation des tissus urbains et ruraux [BIMBY and BUNTI: making residents the project owners of the transformation of urban and rural fabric]. Organic Cities I, Paris. Sciences Po & Villes Vivantes. → watch the video

Trade press and opinion pieces

✼ Caraire, D., et al. (2024, December). Autopromotion accompagnée: du logement abordable sans gaspiller les moyens publics [Supported owner-led development: affordable housing without wasting public resources]. News Tank Cities, December 2024.

✼ Caraire, D. (2021, September). Conquête de l’espace: les collectivités sur la rampe de lancement? [The conquest of space: local authorities on the launch pad?]. News Tank Cities, September 2021.

✼ Hanss, T., Hernandez, A., Lempérière, P., Miet, D. & Caraire, D. (2020, December). Bimby, Bamba, Bunti: dépasser le modèle de la promotion immobilière pour métamorphoser la ville [Bimby, Bamba, Bunti: moving beyond the property development model to transform the city]. Opérations Immobilières / Le Moniteur, December 2020.

Articles — The Villes Vivantes guide (vv.guide)

✼ Caraire, D. (2024, January). Que se passe-t-il lorsqu’on raisonne sur des Français théoriques, habitant des logements théoriques? [What happens when we reason about theoretical French people living in theoretical homes?]. Le guide des villes vivantes, January 2024.

✼ Caraire, D. (2025). 4,4 milliards d’euros en 2026: quel effet de levier au niveau local? [€4.4 billion in 2026: what leverage effect at local level?]. Le guide des villes vivantes.

✼ Caraire, D. (2024). Les urbanistes, serruriers du “camp du non”? [Urban planners: locksmiths for the “NIMBY camp”?]. Le guide des villes vivantes.

✼ Caraire, D. (2024). Gironde: l’effet rebond engendré par la politique du “moins c’est mieux” [Gironde: the rebound effect generated by the “less is more” policy]. Le guide des villes vivantes.

✼ Caraire, D. (2024). Densifier les zones pavillonnaires [Densifying single-family neighbourhoods]. Le guide des villes vivantes.

← Paul Lempérière
David Miet →