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."