The university plans to move to the Saclay plateau, to the town of Gif-sur-Yvette by 2016. Various scientific and educational institutions have been built in this area since the middle of the 20th century (for example, the CEA nuclear research center with a campus designed by Auguste Perret), therefore its further development in this direction is more than logical.
In addition, École Centrale Paris has revamped its curriculum for future engineers with laboratory research and experimentation at the forefront. New premises are needed for it, and the project of the OMA bureau meets these requirements.
Called Lab City, it is a building measuring 159 mx 127 m and a height of 12 m (area 36 thousand m2). The volumes of laboratories, offices of researchers and graduate students, IT centers, etc. are located inside the rectangular grid of its plan. Above, in the center of the building, there is a 4-storey volume with seminar and lecture halls, a gymnasium, and administrative premises.
The honeycomb plan of the building is cut diagonally by a public “promenade” connecting the adjacent Supelec School of Engineering and the future station of the new metro network linking the suburbs to the center of Paris (Grand Paris Express).
The second building of the École Centrale Paris (34 thousand m2) will be erected next to the OMA building, its architect has not yet been determined.
In addition to designing the building, OMA was also entrusted with an urban planning project - the planning of the Joliot-Curie district (30 hectares), where the École Centrale Paris will be located. There will be located the "Square of Sciences" (campuses of the École Centrale Paris and Supelec engineering schools, the Higher Normal School (Kashan), possibly also a police training center - only 110 thousand m2), infrastructure facilities, offices, as well as housing and student dormitories (50,000 m2).
Construction of the new École Centrale Paris campus will begin in 2014. Its budget is 220 million euros.
N. F.
