Ecole Polytechnique Laboratories

The project is the illustration of the concept of “poly-technic”.  It is the concourse of different kinds of knowledge, all packaged in a comprehensive and efficient system.

It defines a system that offers a collective identity and combines together the units or autonomous functional universes. It is an effective and flexible machine, where the technique is sublimated. We combined an architectural device (the servant colonnade) grouping all the technical functions into a sustainable infrastructure.

It is the main frame which allows efficiency and changes in the optimum time. The project has no pre-defined formal intention, it follows the functional and technical demands of the program.  The result of the project will potentially become the aesthetic of science.

The objectives of the project reflect the essence of the acclaimed institution that is the Polytechnique: flexibility, efficiency, versatility of uses, serendipity, maintenance and durability, compact size, scalability, diversity and unity.

The project is not an architectural form, but rather the implementation of an architectural process in which all users can participate. It offers a scalable programmatic configuration. The module chosen 15m by 15m offers an infinite variety of configurations and uses from the scientific world of laboratories to the offices upstairs. This unique frame is organizing the general plan. All partitions, facades are removable.

This proposed universe is primarily the creation of a horizontal field in which each functional entity can exist in itself but can also interact with the others. The proposed structural solution highlights flexibility and arrangements between the programs. It is simple, robust and effective.

The project reunites different schools and proposes a participatory essence of a sustainable aesthetic, scientific and transparent. It is a flexible device that can realize a new efficiency for the Polytechnique, ENSTA and ONERA schools, seeking to sublimate the Poly phonic character of the art and science.

credits

Architect: Clément Blanchet Architecture 
Client: EPAPS
Nature of the operation: Competition
Realised in: 2016
Site: Plateau de Saclay
Program: Laboratories. 12.000m²
Budget: 22 Millions Euros

Team Composition

Architect: Paul Vincent
Engineering: AIA  Ingénierie
Renderings: LUXIGON
Acoustics: Orythie
Cost consultant: SLETEC Ingénierie
Expert consultant: Olivier Caro
Sustainability: AIA Studio Environment