HEC School of Management

A new emblem for the HEC family, this project serves as the main entrance to the campus, as well as a liaison between the existing and future buildings that will comprise the school. It embodies a new concept of permeable building dedicated to integrated learning by interlacing both the school’s formal and informal spheres. Reinforcing a strong identity by focusing on its assets The MBA building’s concept requires an entity with different faces to answer multiple ambitions. Elegant thus iconic, the project creates a new façade to the south and allows a further development for the rest of the extension. Seven blocks of small dimension naturally integrate a site with a strong agricultural atmosphere. The building is permeable to public space: inside, but also through or around the building, this segmentation of the entity enables the global environment to be more collective. Light devices, optimal performances The ground floor hosts the general reception and all administration areas for the campus. On top, two floors of teaching spaces open up on the large views over the Saclay plateau. Wrapped into an aluminum skin that reminds the original 1964 campus, the MBA building develops a unique facade, addressing in a very unique way the views on the plateau. The champagne tone given to the aluminum is inspired as much from the color of the surrounding grounds as from the sky that infinitely reflects itself into this vertically dressed grid. Inside, the concrete exostructure frees large flexible spaces while maintaining a high level of thermic inertia. Design Team: David Chipperfield Architects mandatary, Debarre Duplantiers Associés Architecture & Paysage