HEC Paris
A Reimagined Forest Campus

Just a few kilometres from the French capital, HEC Paris is set within a site where the forest—a historic legacy of the château de Jouy hunting grounds—deeply shapes the campus’s identity. The overall redevelopment project does not seek to obscure this heritage, but to reveal and enhance it. Nature becomes the guiding thread of the design, structuring pathways, organizing uses, and creating living spaces where learning and relaxation merge seamlessly with the landscape.

The campus unfolds through major landscape sequences: clearings, water gardens, shrub massifs, and mineral settings. These environments, planted with local species, support biodiversity, student activities, and daily rituals, while evolving with the seasons.

On the Upper Campus, the reshaped topography forms gentle micro-undulations that capture rainwater and promote biodiversity. The historic avenue is transformed into a pedestrian promenade lined with groves and clearings, offering open spaces for gatherings as well as quieter areas for contemplation. Every path becomes a place where student life naturally unfolds—reading corners, study areas, and viewpoints over flowering groundcovers and micro-forests. Here, buildings and landscape engage in a fluid dialogue, guided by the presence of living world.

Further south, the Lower Campus regains its original perspectives and balance. Forest edges are redefined, clearings are re-established, and formal lawns open up unobstructed views toward the château and the ponds. Simplified and accessible pathways connect the Communs, the château, and landscaped areas. Gardens, meadows, and groves form a calming continuum, providing a setting conducive to contemplation, study, and disconnection.

At the scale of the entire site, HEC Paris becomes a living, ecological campus—a open-air laboratory where the landscape supports biodiversity, pedagogical experimentation, and awareness of environmental challenges. Rain gardens and ecological corridors create a dynamic ecosystem in which students are invited to engage in preservation and regeneration projects, linking learning with concrete action.

Nature is not just a backdrop: it structures spaces, inspires new practices, and shapes the campus experience. It reconnects people with the living world, reveals the beauty of the site, and positions HEC as a committed actor in the environmental transition. Here, the forest remains a foundation, a rhythm, and a shared horizon for generations to come

The HEC Paris campus is set within an estate inhabited since the 17th and 18th centuries, reshaped in the 19th century and later transformed in the 1960s with the establishment of the modern campus. The château, the Communs, the academic buildings, and successive landscape layers today form a palimpsest, in which each era leaves an active trace.

The project seeks to reveal this rich heritage while supporting the transformation of uses, the evolution of technologies, and the institution’s environmental ambitions. Two major interventions enrich this stratification: the creation of new landmark buildings—the Heart of Campus and the reconstruction of the Grands Communs—and the selective transformation of the existing heritage, endowed with a new contemporary and legible layer.

Urban analysis highlights two structuring sequences: the Upper Campus and the Lower Campus. Their targeted intensification strengthens their distinct identities while preserving landscaped areas as much as possible. The two hubs are connected by a functional route served by autonomous shuttles, complemented by a redesigned pedestrian path through the forest, offering a sensory experience of the site.

At HEC, heritage preservation involves examining its capacity to accommodate today’s and tomorrow’s uses. When technical constraints no longer allow for complete conservation, the building envelopes are reinterpreted to restore performance, durability, and accessibility. Restoration and contemporary intervention coexist, in an approach that respects the rhythms, proportions, and materiality of the existing buildings.

The original campus, designed by René André Coulon in the 1960s, is a manifesto of modern architecture conceived to engage in dialogue with nature. His work, born of major collaborations and an exceptional mastery of glass and concrete, shaped HEC’s identity. Our project preserves its lines, façades, and grid, while giving them a new life adapted to contemporary uses: a heritage that is respected, living, and ready for the future.

The HEC 2084 vision guides the campus transformation: a sustainable, adaptable, and environmentally exemplary place, open to experimentation and co-creation with its users.

Architectural choices reflect this ambition: timber for the structure to reduce carbon footprint, massive stone for durability and thermal inertia, prefabricated rammed earth to valorize a local resource, and wooden façades to create a warm and contemporary atmosphere.

The strategy of constructive simplicity prioritizes conservation and renovation over replacement: historic buildings are carefully restored, their decorative details respected, and their envelopes modernized using bio-based solutions.

The entire project incorporates a holistic approach to carbon, landscape, mobility, pedagogy, and biodiversity, making the campus an open-air laboratory for ecological transition. Every material, space, and use contributes to this ambition, offering students, faculty, and staff a sustainable and adaptable campus for decades to come.

The project anticipates evolving uses and offers an enhanced educational experience across the entire campus. Teaching spaces are modular and inclusive: they allow for varied configurations—interactive classes, small-group workshops, hybrid in-person/remote work—while providing comfort and equipment suited to instructors.

The Heart of Campus and the Communs incorporate a flexible and durable structure, promoting adaptability for future uses. They host collaborative spaces, coworking areas, digital creation studios, modular meeting rooms, and multifunctional spaces, enabling conferences, workshops, and events. The 6 m × 6 m timber grid ensures maximum modularity and optimizes environmental performance, thermal regulation, and acoustics.

The campus also offers everyday services tailored to everyone’s needs: concierge, cafés, tea rooms, dining points, sports facilities, mobility hubs, and work and relaxation areas. A Service Lab will test new offerings and services in connection with the actual usage patterns of students and faculty, strengthening pedagogical innovation and quality of life on site.

The experience extends beyond the buildings: outdoor spaces are designed to host classes, sports activities, artistic performances, and moments of relaxation, with comfort ensured through shelters, power outlets, Wi-Fi, lighting, and adaptable layouts. The cultural and artistic offerings unfold across the entire campus: interactive installations, performances, and temporary exhibitions foster reflection, participation, and dialogue with the educational and technological environment.

The campus thus becomes a showcase for innovation and pedagogy, integrating research, project incubation, and technological experimentation. The site hosts spaces dedicated to entrepreneurship, research, start-ups, and the dissemination of innovations, creating an interdisciplinary ecosystem where learning, creativity, and technology intersect.