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.

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. 

Lab City is intersected by a diagonal street, which extends the public route connecting the university with the surrounding campus.

In their statement, OMA noted, "In an era of privatization, cities are facing a major challenge: investment in the public domain depends increasingly on the private sector. As a result of this reframing of the collective agreement, the role of architecture is often reduced to the visual impact of its shape and surface rather than contributing to a new educational, social and civic dimension."