OMA's first scientific building, Lab City, to open in September

2017-08-31T14:58:00-04:00

OMA’s first scientific building—laboratory and engineering school, Lab City CentraleSupélec in Paris Saclay, has been completed and will open to students this September.

The university, which is now one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles specialized in engineering, was formed in 2015 by a merger between Ecole Centrale Paris and Supélec. CentraleSupélec's new building is part of a 22ha campus located at the heart of the future district Joliot-Curie, for which OMA has developed the masterplan, placing the university alongside research institutes and major tech companies.

Photograph by Vitor Oliveira, Courtesy of OMA

The public areas of the school are treated as urban tissue—streets, terraces and center square are fully day-lit through a large translucent roof. Grided independent blocks house laboratories and classrooms, and as they increase in height, their roof terraces provide open workspaces for students and views to the heart of the structure.

Photograph by Philippe Ru...

Affordable spaces for London's creative industry by Urban Acupuncture

2016-07-08T11:18:00-04:00

The duo asked themselves the question if London will still be the capital of creativity, arts and crafts in 10 years time. Rising rents for residential and work spaces, combined with an increasingly unaffordable education system, are making the city less and less accessible. According to Boano and Prišmontas, London has always been a center for creativity, but the recent financial pressures have turned ‘creativity’ into an industry that can only be joined by people who are able to afford it.

At this unstable time, the capital's creative industry must be entrepreneurial and work together to remain the best, are we up to the challenge? Read more stories of ingenuity in the UK here:

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OMA's first scientific building, Lab City, to open in September

Affordable spaces for London's creative industry by Urban Acupuncture