OMA Wins Competition With Daylight-Filled École Centrale School of Engineering in France

Posted By Bridgette Meinhold On October 8, 2012 @ 3:00 pm In Architecture,carousel showcase,Daylighting,News,Sustainable Building | No Comments

• Tweet ^[1]
• Share on Tumblr ^[2]
• Email ^[3]

 

^{[4]  [5]}

Last week OMA ^[6] was named the winner of a competition to design the École Centrale School of Engineering ^[7] in Saclay, France. The new school will feature an ETFE-roofed superblock design, and it will be integrated into the urban context of the existing research and innovation zone of Saclay, southwest of Paris. A large enclosure contains a mini city with a central plaza and buildings connected by pedestrian streets. OMA's design provides a naturally daylit space that is protected from the elements.

  ^[5]

^[8]

OMA’s ^[7] design for the new École Centrale School of Engineering ^[7] in Saclay, France is based on the concept of a “lab city.” The plan shows a collection of volumes collected under a low-level, ETFE-roofed superblock. This concept has multiple benefits and creates a contained mini city dedicated to science, technology and research. Clément Blanchet, director of OMA projects in France, explains ^[7] “The design integrates urbanism with the school, supplanting the homogeneous experience of the campus. It’s an attempt to define the actual esthetic of science.”

Grid-connected streets within the building provide direct pathways around the project and also cultivate collaboration, chance meetings and generate a new typology for learning. A central pedestrian spine crosses the superblock and connects with the rest of the school and on the other side will connect with a new metro station headed to Paris. The enclosure not only contains the school, but also protects it from the elements. The result is like a city, but protected and filled with natural daylight. The project contains a variety of lab and office spaces as well as a gym, administration center and classrooms for first year students. The project was developed in collaboration with Bollinger and Grohman, Alto, DHV, DAL, and D’Ici Là.

+ OMA ^[9]

Via Bustler ^[10]

Images © OMA

Article printed from Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building: http://inhabitat.com

URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/oma-wins-competition-for-glass-roofed-ecole-centrale-school-of-engineering-in-france/

URLs in this post:

[1] Tweet: http://twitter.com/share

[2] Share on Tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/share

[3] Email: mailto:?subject=http://inhabitat.com/oma-wins-competition-for-glass-roofed-ecole-centrale-school-of-engineering-in-france/

[4]

[5]  : http://inhabitat.com/oma-wins-competition-for-glass-roofed-ecole-centrale-school-of-engineering-in-france/ecole-centrale-school-of-engineering-oma-2/?extend=1

[6] OMA: http://inhabitat.com/tag/oma

[7] École Centrale School of Engineering: http://oma.eu/news/2012/oma-wins-competition-for-%C3%A9cole-centrale-engineering-school-in-saclay,-france

[8] Image: http://inhabitat.com/oma-wins-competition-for-glass-roofed-ecole-centrale-school-of-engineering-in-france/ecole-centrale-school-of-engineering-oma-2/

[9] + OMA: http://oma.eu/

[10] Bustler: http://www.bustler.net/index.php/article/oma_selected_to_design_saclay_engineering_school/

Click here to print.