[1][2] The school is recognized for its focus on sustainability,[3] and its students have received awards for adaptable designs encouraging new attitudes towards waste.

The École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris-Belleville was founded by a dissident group of students from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts,[5] l'atelier collégial 1, led by Bernard Huet [fr], in 1965.

8), and it has since occupied various re-purposed quarters, including Les Halles until their demolition, as well as a former Meccano factory in the Belleville section of Paris.

In 2009 it moved into a purposely designed space, a conversion and partial rebuilding of the former site of the Lycée technique Diderot [fr], also in Belleville.

The research arm of the school is the Institut Parisien de Recherche: Architecture, Urbanistique, Société (IPRAUS), which emphasises interdisciplinary approaches.