Air Liquide R&D centre – LES LOGES-EN-JOSAS (Yvelines)

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Completion year Work in progress
Contracting Authority Air Liquide
Mission Project-managing the new R&D centre at Paris Saclay in Les Loges-en-Josas, landscaping the park and producing a master development scheme with BREEAM certification
Project Management Team Architects Atelier Michel Rémon (mandated agent), Landscape architects and designers Laure Planchais, SETEC BET, Economist Vanguard, Tribu Environnement
Surface area 8 hectares
Budget Confidential
Ratio Confidential

The Air Liquide site is part of the historical geography of the Saclay plateau, which used to supply water to the gardens of Versailles by conveying its flow of rainwater via the nearby Buc aqueduct. In the 18th century, the Versailles estate became a focal point for world botanical research, especially with the Jussieu dynasty. While it is a relatively recent creation (the 60s), the park in Air Liquide’s property is a living testimonial of those plants which were brought back in the luggage of travelling botanists and of their horticultural creations (Atlas cedars, Canadian thujas, purple beeches side by side with common ash, oaks, maple trees, plane trees, chestnut trees etc.), and which symbolise the diverse origins of the company’s employees. This tree compilation will be sponsored on a worldwide scale by researchers hailing from across the globe who work at Air Liquide. In addition, botany has been an extraordinary source of inspiration for science, particularly the role of photosynthesis in gas transformation processes.
The landscaping project will introduce rainwater management, of the order of 4,000 cubic metres to be stored in clay soil, implying a composition that will take advantage of that constraint: forming pools and channels as a nod to the Versailles waterworks. The excavated earth, mostly containing clay and buhrstone, will largely be reused on site by building rammed earth walls and ledges covered in buhrstone cladding.
Lastly, the project will put the spotlight on the Air Liquide company’s special features, using powerful elements that can represent it throughout outdoor spaces:

  • The company’s effective environmental awareness
  • The company’s relation to air