Design College near Paris by SAME

Many European universities are currently forming networks of start-ups and established companies, both structurally and institutionally. However, the genesis of the iXCampus in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, west of Paris, was exactly the opposite. In 2019, the drone, navigation and robotics specialist Exail began attracting start-ups and medium-sized technology companies to its headquarters on the outskirts of the town. In 2021, two faculties from the University of Cergy-Paris joined the campus. The campus currently accommodates around 600 students studying photonics, quantum physics and industrial design. 

The site plan shows the area with the new Design Faculty building on the right, Graphic © SAME 

Further growth is planned. With the help of the project managers at “Because Architecture Matters” (BAM), the client launched an urban planning competition to redesign the seven-hectare site. At the heart of the site is the late 19th-century Château Saint Léger. At the end of the 1980s, Dominique Perrault converted the late Romantic castle into a conference centre.  

The facades alternate between seemingly thick limestone walls and timber frame walls. © Schnepp Renou 

The site has been used for commercial purposes since the end of the Second World War, with new buildings designed by Jean Prouvé being added. The master plan, developed by architects Baumschlager Eberle and SAME, envisages the recreation of the fragmented and partly asphalted park grounds on the one hand, and on the other hand, a new building for the design faculty has been constructed at the eastern end of the property, facing the city.  

On the upper floors, a regular facade grid extends around all interior rooms, regardless of whether they are used as seminar rooms, offices, or toilets. © Schnepp Renou 

The urban planning conditions had a decisive influence on the building's design: two converging roads border the property at an acute angle to the north and south. The natural difference in height between the western and eastern ends is almost one storey. In addition, as with all buildings in the wider vicinity of the Palace of Versailles, monument protection regulations had to be taken into account. While the local development plan did not impose any height restrictions on the new building, the large lecture hall and computer rooms were relocated to the basement. Even the entrance floor declines below ground level on the west side. There, a sunken courtyard leads down to the lowest level. The main entrance is located opposite on the east side, facing the traffic junction and the town centre. 

An acute-angled access core connects all floors. © Schnepp Renou 

Inside, an acute-angled access core containing a staircase and lift connects all four levels, and the interior walls are flexible. A spiral staircase leads from the two-storey entrance lobby up to the first floor. The facades offer no indication as to what lies behind them: corridors, toilets, offices or seminar rooms. In their regular structure, seemingly solid limestone wall panels alternate with light wooden stud walls and windows. The weight of the exterior walls is somewhat offset when you realise that they are U-shaped elements filled with insulating material. These are topped and bottomed off with reinforced concrete slabs.  

Axonometric projection of the wall structure, Graphic © SAME 

Reinforced concrete round columns are also integrated into the natural stone interior. These columns protect the exterior walls against buckling and connect the offset wall panels to each other. The cross-laminated timber ceilings only rest on the exterior and stairwell walls, as well as on rows of columns along the corridors, ensuring spatial flexibility. This means that the partition walls between the offices and seminar rooms can be reconfigured as required. 


Further campus architecture: In addition to the design college near Paris, it is worth taking a look at the Design Faculty in Munich, which combines education, workshops, and meeting spaces to form a lively campus building block—now available in our database Detail Inspiration.