The 8 winning projects for Europacity
The first version of Europacity, designed by Bjarke Ingels for Immochan, the property arm of the Auchan Group, generated a great deal of debate. The client subsequently changed its plans with a new version, paving the way for greater architectural diversity, notably by launching eight architectural competitions for the project's facilities.
The competition drew some thirty architecture practices into the project. Matteo Perino, operations director of EuropaCity, explains: “It is the largest privately initiated architecture competition ever held in France. We really wanted to explore and discover 30 different ways of seeing and imagining EuropaCity.” The architects began work in July and submitted their entries in December 2017. These were reviewed by a jury made up of Bjarke Ingels's team, Mathis Güller (urban planner for the ZAC), the town of Gonesse and Grand Paris Aménagement.
The winning architects have just been announced, so let's meet them.
Clément Blanchet Architecture – Contemporary circus
Clément Blanchet, formerly project leader at OMA, where he orchestrated the future Parc des Expositions in Toulouse and the École Centrale Paris on the Saclay plateau, is on a roll. Having just won the future Carrefour research centre, he has now been entrusted with the Cirque Contemporain at Europacity. The project's post-and-beam structure is covered by canvases that echo the popular circuses travelling through our villages.
Hérault Arnod Architectes – Concert hall
The architects Hérault Arnod, who already have several music venues to their name, such as the one set in the northern mining valley, have won the concert hall at Europacity. The building is designed to open onto the park through a large glazed curtain wall, with a covered outdoor area intended to host open-air concerts. The roof is laid out as a public space comprising a Sound Deck and a Shox Factory.
UNStudio – Cultural centre dedicated to the seventh art
Europacity's cinema centre has been awarded to UNStudio, great devotees of the curve, whose architects “aim to democratise cinematic art and its universe, where everyone can experience this art form beyond traditional ‘black box’ cinemas. The Cultural Centre is thus conceived as a public space and a cultural laboratory open to all.” The building will be wrapped in corroded metal.
Atelier Alfonso Femia – Affordable boutique hotel
The Atelier Alfonso Femia will design a three-star hotel. The architects built their approach to this hospitality facility on three challenges: creating a strong identity, forging genuine relationships with the context, and devising a scheme capable of becoming the figurehead of a system.
Atelier COS – Luxury hotel
Atelier COS / Europacity
Atelier COS will build a five-star hotel. Based on floriculture, the project nods to the site's past. “This hotel will offer a new kind of guest experience, with its fireflies, its rooftop flower fields and its atrium treated as a bamboo grove. The building has a strong identity, with its coloured strips, free of formal contrivance or technological gimmickry. It is built in symbiosis with its environment, thanks to the synergies between hospitality and floriculture, around the production of peonies, camellias and roses through the seasons”, the architects explain.
AAVP Architecture – Hotel and conference centre
Vincent Parreira, the architect, together with Antonio Virga, of the Atoll in Angers, has been named winner for the design of the Europacity Hotel and Conference Centre. “Entirely rounded, the long, earthy mass rises gently, irresistibly drawing visitors into the Conference Center, with no hint of the wonder produced by the tall dome that bathes it in light. The MICE space then opens onto EuropaCity's pedestrian area and the mass rises again, this time to welcome guests of the four-star hotel. The hotel, perched on the roof of the animal, draws a green topography of vales and hills from which the hotel ribbons emerge. This bocage-like blanket hosts micro-landscapes in which to escape the hubbub of the city and refocus on oneself, thanks to the refuge of the glass-clad rooms. Palace or fortress, the rooms take the teeming, poetic form of unusual archetypes, inviting us to give free rein to our imagination, to inhabit the world differently and appreciate it. Journeying once more”, comment the architects at AAVP.
Franklin Azzi Architecture – Design hotel and children's cultural centre
The project designed by Franklin Azzi Architecture develops a large landscaped mass perforated by the windows of the 400 hotel rooms. The project is completed by a wellness area, shops, restaurants and a cultural hotel for children.
Chabanne Architecte – Water park hotel
The practice Chabanne Architecte has been awarded the design of the hotel that will adjoin the water park. The project is marked by the lines of its terraces, an allusion to the erosion caused by water. These house cafés, restaurants, lounges and conference rooms.