The Paris-Saclay campus, 20 kilometers from the center of the French capital, claims the status of the European "Silicon Valley": since the 1990s, commercial and state research centers, universities and other scientific institutions have been gathering there. Construction of the campus began in the mid-2000s; its total area today occupies about 77 km2. It is located within the borders of Greater Paris and is connected to the city by the regional express line, which is included in the metro network of the capital.
Last year, the CentraleSupélec School of Engineering opened two new buildings, along with the two existing ones, Bouygues (architects Gigon / Guyer) and Eiffel, designed by OMA. "Eiffel" with a total area of almost 50 thousand m2 contains various laboratories (including five with heavy equipment), a main auditorium for 970 seats (if you wish, it can be divided into three parts), two streaming auditoriums for 120 students, one for 80, four for 50 seats. There are also spaces for more than 150 student associations and clubs, a main dining room, study areas, a language and information center.
It was important for architects to change the existing situation, when private investments become key for public projects, and the role of architecture is reduced to the design of the volume and surface of the building. The social, civic and educational aspects of the project are usually forgotten - but not in this case.
The OMA team, led by partners Rem Koolhaas and Helen van Loon, proposed to change the usual layout of a laboratory building - a block with corridors that becomes an impenetrable boundary in an urban environment (video interview of van Loon about the project can be viewed
here). Instead, a planning grid was created, where laboratories and other premises play the role of separate "buildings", thus, "school" merges with "urbanism". The roofs of the laboratory “houses” create an additional 2,000 m2 of public space. If desired, the filling of the body within the grate can be changed.
The architects called their concept Lab City - "city of laboratories", where "creative disorder" is framed by a rigid frame. The diagonal “street” through the entire building, open to all campus residents, plays a key role: it leads from the center of the ensemble to the Grand Paris Express station.
The building is covered with ETFE cushions to provide natural light. Permeability has become a separate topic: even anyone can get into the directorate zone, and a significant part of the premises can be rented out to external customers.
