Law Training and Research Unit | University Paris-Est Créteil
Technical sheet

Law Training and Research Unit | University Paris-Est Créteil

Créteil
Delivered

The Enclosure as a Legible Perimeter

Facing surroundings that were not very "urban", between a warehouse and an expressway – this university program imposed on the architect a complexity that he described enthusiastically as "marvelous". In a city with very different architectural patterns, Michel Rémon faithfully followed the line of a structuring boulevard and its beautiful alignment of plane trees to imagine design a small agora of law, open to the city on the east side. The visitor’s eye is drawn, right from the entrance, to a clash of volumes: the campus shows its studious aspect in two opposing profiles. Two giant amphitheaters set into the ground contrast with a two-story library, which seems to be raised toward the sky, and opens up a view to the internal light of the composition.

"Beyond its elegant variable geometry, the complex of buildings works via a unique style, given flow by the regular rhythm of its horizontal openings."

Fiche Technique

New-build / Public Operation

Client
University Paris Est Créteil (UPEC)

Construction cost
€ 33,3 million excluding tax

Net floor area
13 382 m²

Date
2000 – 2005

Program

Six amphitheaters (1,480 seats), classrooms, library (5,546 m² useful floor area) and university restaurant.

Team members

Lead Architect
MICHEL RÉMON & ASSOCIÉS

Light Designer
Coup d’éclat

Color specialist
Françoise Couvez

Engineer and Economist
IGREC Ingénierie

Acoustic
ALTIA

 

Pictures: Jean-Marie Monthiers, Anne-Claude Barbier