On the Saclay plateau near the French capital, a campus is being created for the "mega-university" Paris-Saclay, which will unite nearly two dozen universities and research organizations. According to the plans of its founders, it will become the leading university in continental Europe, as well as get into the top ten of the ranking of the world's best universities. In the meantime, a town is being created for him, where the OMA will be built, and now - the So Fujimoto building, designed by him in collaboration with the French bureaus Nicolas Laisné Associés and Manal Rachdi Oxo Architectes.
Their Training Center, although officially assigned to the Ecole Polytechnique, will serve five more educational and research institutes (Institut Mines-Telecom, AgroParisTech, ENSTA ParisTech, ENSAE ParisTech and IOGS) and will also take center stage in the surrounding area. The new building confirms its resulting role as an architectural and educational center of the campus with its appearance.
Its main façade faces the green area (Le Green), serving, as in Anglo-Saxon universities, the main public space on the campus. The boundaries between the environment and the exterior are blurred by the roof overhang and the glass facade protected from the sun, behind which the “heart” of the center is hidden. This "heart" is an atrium with many platforms, stairs and bridges, where - just like outside - trees grow. The authors of the project consider this space - which has already become a common place in universities at the beginning of the 21st century - as a place for random meetings and communication of 150 teachers, 2,000 students, as well as employees of the nearby laboratories of the Polytechnic School.
In addition, the building has traditional streaming and seminar rooms of various sizes, as well as - in the spirit of "innovative pedagogy" - rooms for distance learning, video conferencing, group work ("study boxes" and "project rooms"). The resulting educational system will be based on the principle of interactivity and digital technology.
The area of the Training Center will be 10,000 m2, and the budget will be 32.5 million euros. The total area of all buildings on the Paris-Saclay campus will reach 1.74 million m2.
