Paris-Saclay Housing

Programme

Student housing, offices, shops and parking.

With no connection to the urban rail networks,the plateau de Saclay, the new figurehead university campus for the Paris region, remains mostly dependent on road transport: high-frequency buses and, of course, cars. This unusual building by Baukunst and Bruther – a student residence, with half its volume occupied by car parking – is a symbol of this paradoxical situation. The building is recognizable by the arched concrete roof line. The spacious access ramps betray their function: the first three levels are open car parking, while the apartments occupy the upper three floors. The theatrical form of vertical circulation which the spiral staircases gives the whole a playful aspect that sets off the sobriety and neo-brutalist directness of the building quite well. Instead of hiding the car to discreetly encourage its use, it is placed at the heart of the built ecosystem. However, this arrangement is reversible, as the space used for parking can be reconfigured into housing when the arrival of the metro makes the use of private cars redundant. This architectural sincerity contrasts strongly with the doctrine of most so-called eco-neighbourhoods which, while flaunting their environmental credentials, offer their residents countless underground car parks, carefully camouflaged beneath gardens. The frankness of the arrangement proposed by Baukunst and Bruther breaks with the alienating illusion of being part of a sustainable world. Is not the awareness of one’s true condition, once social, now environmental, a first step towards emancipation? The radical nature of the building functions as group therapy: a manifesto built upon the condition to be overcome; an architectural way of exposing contradictions and calling for change. The fact that the parking spaces are not underground also offers one last benefit, and not the least important: an open-ground core area. As well as allowing the building to adapt to changing needs, this configuration will allow large trees to enrich the interior garden.

Christophe Catsaros