Description

On the outskirts of Saint-Quentin near Paris, Renault concentrated all facilities for the design of new cars, basic research, development, and production of prototypes in one development centre. On a site with a total area of 150 ha, the centre is to create 8,000 jobs for engineers in an urban context that includes roads, buildings, places for work and communication, parks, and lakes.

The master plan stipulated the orientation of the buildings along an axis between the church bell tower of Guyancourt and the Villaroy Farm. The new complex is embedded into the flat landscape and refers to existing buildings and the natural environment. Situated in the middle of a valley stood with trees and crossed by a canal it virtually becomes part of the topography.

In contrast with the integration into the landscape a rigid 54 m grid determining the buildings’ position was introduced. Based on an associated colour scheme – white stands for research and grey for its materialisation – two building types representing the different development stages of a car have been planned along the main axis.

As one approaches the premises, density and height of the building fabric increase and reach their culmination in the technology centre – the complex where the first design studies come into being. Within the given framework of the master plan, various architects were to receive a large degree of freedom – yet the architecture was to transport a spatially and formally coherent image of a research city. The centre is functionally highly complex and characterised by high demands on optimal communication.

The multi-layered complex with its crossing network of buildings grouped around inner courtyards is based on a modular grid that keeps a manageable scale. Four metallic white, elongated volumes seem to hover above a base made of stone and aluminium.

The workshops on the ground floor, the public rooms on the mezzanine, and the studios above are strongly linked by gangways leading to the lifts, stairs, and conference rooms. They provide openness and communication as well as separation and privacy. The transparent corridors and gangways afford views of the surrounding landscape and the inner courtyards. They facilitate orientation and even in the innermost parts of the buildings daytime and seasonal changes can be recognised. Three atriums serve as meeting and information areas and form the complex’ central circulation artery. It is crossed by footbridges and lined with restaurants.

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Originally published in: Hardo Braun, Dieter Grömling, Research and Technology Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2005.