Architects: David Chipperfield Architects.
Location: Paris, France.
Year: 2012.
Photographs: Simon Menges.
The Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry is connected to the business school HEC, which was established in 1881. The current campus was established in 1964 on a 300-acre woodland location in the district of Jouy-en-Josas, adjacent to Versailles and other prestigious French academic institutions on the “Saclay Plateau.”
At the junction of the campus and its intended southern expansion will be the new MBA building. Built in 2013, it provides HEC with a gleaming new façade that faces both the current main campus entrance and the upcoming expansion. The concept is to divide the building volume on a long, narrow site into a number of complex components whose dimensions more organically match the scale of the nearby structures. These blocks move in relation to one another in terms of the plan, forming a string of secure semi-courtyards. A huge common hall that spans a campus artery gathers shared services and the school’s more independent teaching rooms. It acts as a “social collector” for HEC and integrates the MBA faculties into the life of the rest of the organisation. The design offers sizable informal study spaces.
