
ECOTONE will accommodate 82 000m2 of mixeduse program that blends offices, retail, restaurants, health, sport facilities, hotel and residencies. Biomimicry and biodiversity are the central approaches of the project oriented towards shaping an environment for its future users based on innovative technologies. These elements are reflected in all aspects of the architectural conception and in the inhabited double skin imagined by the team of architects and landscape architectural firm.

The human being is the focus of the project, the program including a health center realized in partnership with Ipsos Santé and Fédération Fran?aise des Artthérapeutes and several sport facilities: a Concept Sport and a fitness center. The project addresses to different age generations by providing a residency for researches and young professionals, a kindergarten Crèche Attitude, along with several innovating concepts developed by the associations PetitsFils and Génération Kfé.

The biodiversity exposure of the site will be accentuated by different actions developed by the National Museum of Natural History, CEEBIOS, ELAN and of the lab CRIGEN d’ENGIE. The ecological aspect will be supported by rich and diverse fauna and flora and by organizing workshops of information to raise awareness on the ecological issues.

Moreover, the project has a lowcarbon approach by looking into developing solutions using local means of production of energy elaborated by ENGIE. The solutions implemented will include recuperating heat from wastewater, solar panels, wind turbines, waste recycling and recovery methods e.g. methanisation. All these innovative energy approaches will focus on mobility, by creating a multienergy power station that will provide electricity, biogas and hydrogen for the cars of tomorrow.

Nature has always been the catalyst of our design approach. Our aspiration was to imagine a building that embodies and enhances its natural environment. Thus, we proposed to accentuate the figure of the valley on the flanks of the hill by extending the existing park. Therefore Ecotone becomes more than a built element, but an extension of the landscape, a sort of inhabited landscape.

It is the superposition of these terraces along the slope of the valley that shape the building, along with interior patios that bring natural light to its core. An inhabited double skin overlaps the terraces to keeps the continuity and fluidity of the volume. It is the alternation between the double glass fa?ade and vegetation that protects the interior life from the exterior and the nearby highway: e.g. heat, noise etc., while keeping the interior largely open to the landscape: urban and natural. The terraces shelter mixed usages such as: meeting rooms, leisure spaces and even vegetable gardens.
The second skin animates the facades of the building which becomes a natural prolongation of the topography of the Coteau. The skin of the building evolves with the changing of seasons creating a living landscape.
The proportion, proximity and relationship of interior spaces, and the way they are articulated, defined and connected through double heights and passarelles facilitate the communication and movement.

Considering all this, Ecotone imagines an original connection and transition between the city and nature. The project imagines a new way of work and life founded on the porosity between the constructed environment and nature. All this leads to new relations between human and nature, more open and more respectful to the natural environment. This attitude oriented on biophilia contributes on the wellbeing of users, but even more targets towards an ecological awareness.

Location: Arcueil, France
Client: Compagnie de Phalsbourg + Codeurs et Compagnie + Hertel Investissement + Engie Avenue
Architects: OXO Architectes+ Duncan Lewis - Scape Architecture + Parc Architectes + Triptyque Architecture
Program: Office + Retail + Hotel + Kindergarden + Students Research Housing
Size: 81 870 m2
Type: Competition
Status: 1st Prize
Construction delivery: 2023
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