The Ecole nationale supérieure (Ens) di Cachan has selected the project by Renzo Piano Building Workshop to develop the new campus of 64,000 square meter with a building that welcomes 3 thousand people by 2018.
The project comprises 4 units connected pairwise by a garden "extraordinary" placed in the center, real beating heart around which organize the different architecture.
The south facade is totally transparent, it will make visible the activities of the campus and around the school will develop gathering places (coffee bar, public restaurant, conference space, learning center).
The north building designed around a street light interior houses the education and research in basic sciences and engineering sciences, the humanities and social sciences division is located in the "satellite" is more rounded forms.
For this project “we were inspired by the quality of the great Anglo-Saxon campus, such as Harvard and Cambridge” said Anne- Hélène Temenides, architect associated with the Renzo Piano BuildingWorkshop.
A project that is a “meeting between the philosophy of a school and that an architecture that base their work on the integration of technical objects, principles and technological humanism”, an approach consistent with that of the campus EnsCachan, based on “interdisciplinarity and the interaction between science, technology and humanities”.
Location: West Campus – Moulon Quarter, France Architect: Renzo Piano Building Workshop Area: 640,000 Sq m Budget: 143 000 000 € HT Date: November 2013 Delivery: 2018 Contracting authority: ENS Cachan Developer: Paris-Saclay Development Authority