Paris - Saclay

How can the site contribute to the adaptable city?

In the near future, Paris-Saclay will become a global innovation cluster, networked with all the Metropolitan Paris development hubs and linked by the new Grand Paris Express Metro. It will build on the interactions between higher education, research and business to create jobs and generate growth. To do this, the project needs to draw on the richness and potential of the extensive area south of Paris. The challenge is threefold: innovation through intensification, revival through openness, reconciliation between nature, science and city for optimum quality of life. In Paris-Saclay, the adaptable city means: a new balance between town and nature which offers the amenities of a town centre within a framework of high-quality natural spaces; urban intensity, facilitating community activities and social mixing; economic use of space through the creation of shared, compact spaces and public amenities; open-ended planning leaving room for sociological changes and innovation. The intention is that the project site submitted for Europan should form part of the dynamics of the Paris-Saclay public interest project agreed between the Government and local authorities and enacted in a territorial master plan, which is already taking shape through phased urban and real estate programmes. 

Partners strategy 

Historically a centre of French scientific research, the Paris-South University campus in the Yvette Valley is creating the third generation of universities. The villages of Bures-sur-Yvette and Orsay, where it is located, are in favour of opening up the campus and developing links with the surrounding urban areas. EPPS is supporting the parties involved and guarantees the coherence of the overall project, notably with the urban project for the southern part of Saclay plateau. The western entrance to the campus, the designated Europan project site, has been identified by all the partners as well suited for the rapid implementation of the adaptable campus. In particular, it benefits from the convergence of several projects already begun by the partners – Bures-sur-Yvette’s revitalisation of its adjacent town centre, the renovation/extension of two student residences by by their owner-operator, the CROUS (university administration centre), the creation of a new road connecting the town to the university, the possible conversion of a building fronting this road, and the reinforcement of student activities through a project for a Student Centre, supported by the Île-de-France region.  

Site definition

The valley-campus study site and the adjacent town centres of Bures sur Yvette and Orsay form part of the wider population zone of the Yvette Valley [from Palaiseau to Saint-Rémy les Chevreuse], and link up with the first developments of Paris-Saclay on the plateau to the north of the building-free slopes. Located in a protected natural space, the site stands within a fine landscape. However, it suffers from shortage of links between town and university, and inadequate public spaces. At present, it does not offer the amenities expected of a university town. 
The project site, at the western end of the study site, stands at the intersection between the urban fabric of Bures-sur-Yvette and one of the teaching hubs of the valley campus, which will soon be reinforced following the concentration of teaching activities. It has everything needed to improve in quality within a short timeframe. Situated on two arms of the Yvette River and on two access roads, north-south and east-west, it is the site of 3 student residences with 300 rooms each (2 for renovation), a public and student sports centre, a communal cafeteria, the future Student Centre and a building currently unused.

Adaptability : main elements to take into account

Although all the sites participating in the Paris-Saclay project share the same objectives, each is developing its own direction in accord with the guidelines set by Michel Desvignes (landscape architect, winner of the Grand Prix de l’Urbanisme 2011) under the National Interest Operation and applied to the south of the plateau. For the Europan site, the adaptable urban campus design should reflect the following factors:

- a natural landscape of good but unexploited quality: natural areas are everywhere, and need to be exploited to increase the attraction of the area. Helping the public to discover these spaces, without reducing their protection, is an opportunity for many users to share the site. 
- A site that is occupied but underinhabited: urban intensity on the site can be increased by drawing on the presence of student residences, which will be accompanied by new residential programmes.
- a space of passage but not of life: this site is usually only crossed for functional purposes, which prevents services, shops or leisure facilities from developing. Since it then offers few activities, the site fails to appeal to the many users who pass through it over the week. To promote a diversity of uses, the site needs to achieve the critical mass that will attract the development of activities of interest to all: students, researchers, families, etc.  

To invent new forms of dialogue between nature city, and city-university, and to offer all the wealth potential of this site, the candidates will aim : 

- to favour porosities with the city centre of  Bures-sur-Yvette and to develop the appropriation of the site by all;
- to establish compact polarities for a stronger urban intensity in the campus in complementarity of the everyday places of the city centre such as stations and streets of the city;
- to reconcile the modes of travel and to make more comfortable the practice on foot of the campus;
- to optimize the land consumptions and to mutualize the functions;
- to value the natural spaces;
- to favour a bigger animation of the campus by places of common practices with different temporality, allowing a mutualisation of uses.

Candidates will propose on the project site : 

- development strategy and a spatial planning, in both the short and long term.
- public spaces,  leisure spaces and traffic area planning principles 
- conversion/ demolition scenario of the vacated building
- a the sketch plane architectural project for the permanent housing of at least 200 students, and for the temporary hosting of teachers-researchers  and their family