EDF Research Center

Photo credits © Odile Decq

 

Under the apparent complexity of its volumetry, our project for EDF’s Research and Development Center in Saclay is an opportunity to highlight the creative part of any innovative work. In this sense, it appears to us that what condenses and gives meaning to the whole project is rst and foremost the relationship between the spaces dedicated to the thought of re- search and those dedicated to the experimentation of this research.

Thus, the building that houses this activity and in which researchers, scientists and engineers compete together must be innovative, while perfectly fulfilling all the functions, connections and relations it contains.

The representation of the alternating current and the direct current, which are distinguished one by the undulation of its directional change and the other by the continuity of its motion, appear to us the image of the concept that we have developed.

The continuity of the soil and of the landscape, which gently rises to absorb the space in relation to the laboratories, the spaces of collective life and the spaces open to the public, differs from the great waves of the volumetry, which emerges above. The waves, penetrating the landscapes below, allow the link, express the exchanges of the collaborations and contain all the relations between the two poles.

Saclay, France
International Competition
2010