ESIEE[it] Higher Education School | ValletdeMartinis Architectes

From the first designs, the main focus has always been on the project’s compactness to expose the site’s merits. The structure is built on a basement that serves as a foundation for the ESIEE[it] Higher Education School . The slope allows for an additional level at the garden level, while a forecourt gives the main entrance to the structure at ground level.

The ESIEE[it] Higher Education School’s Design Concept

The ground floor houses a portion of the collective program (classrooms and auditoriums) and the full school administration. The repetition of metal ventelles on the façade enhances the project’s compactness, like a monolith, a cut mass shaped by the terraces. The façade ventelles conceal administrative offices and classrooms while boosting the social areas: terrace, atrium, student lobby, and reception hall.

Rather than splintering the skyscraper to lessen its impact, the surrounding Pierre de Coubertin and François Mitterrand roads accentuate its presence and visibility. Given the variety of the program’s surface areas, it seemed fitting to experiment with a tiered layout that would provide users with a variety of shared places, particularly the inner terraces.

The main entrance to the amphitheater is on the garden level, and students use the tiered stairway, which also serves as a living area, to get there. The main staircase connects the various levels. This stairway, designed as a lightweight construction, offers access to the classrooms and numerous terraces on the main façade (southeast). These indoor patios create a social atmosphere for the school. These terraces lead to outdoor terraces with views of the surrounding area.

This tiered seating concept can also be found in the main amphitheater. The student lounge is situated two floors above the amphitheater’s mass, offset by two meters on each level to accommodate tiered seating. Two of the school’s classrooms lie above the foyer’s second level, with the same 2-meter offset from the atrium. The clarity of this unitary building, designed on four levels (plus a garden level), makes the idea easy to interpret.

The program’s numerous spaces are organized around two voids, one inside and one outside. First, the administration is built on two levels (ground and first) around the patio; second, the classrooms, which comprise practically all of the remaining rooms, are built mainly around the covered atrium. Some of the classrooms on the second and third levels occupy the space occupied by the administration rooms on the lower levels.

Project Info:

Architects: ValletdeMartinis Architectes
Area: 4714 m²
Year: 2022
Photographs: Charly Broyez
Lead Architects: Alejandro Arocha, Skander Chagour
City: Pontoise
Country: France