Displaced Edge, Paris

The physical, political and social boundary of Paris, unchanged for nearly 150 years and delineated today by the “Peripherique” ring road has insured a universally admired urban quality inside the city. It has also created a formidable barrier to growth and social continuity, posing a particular challenge to the Paris university system to design its necessary expansion beyond the iconic city core.  A consortium of universities and advanced research schools will be the the first to breach the boundary in Aubervilliers, an industrial/warehouse district to the north.  The new campus must do two things at once: frame a central point for the school and serve as the space of collection and event for an emerging community within the neighborhood.

This campus design interpreted the growth of the Paris region as a framework for new design interventions, investigated how a new university campus and architecture could bridge inner and outer Paris through strategic displacement of urban boundaries, and defined an urban campus with both a distinct identity but one well situated within its shed-dominated, light industrial context.

Produced at Harvard GSD, spring 2009 with Andrea Leers, critic; designed in partnership with Kim Cooney

Selected by Minister of Education, France for exhibition at Cite de L’architecture, 2010: 12 Campus du 21E Siecle Exhibition; Published in GSD Studioworks