ARTEM Campus
Located on a former military site in the Haussonville-Blandan district, ARTEM is a major university development scheduled to form part of a new urban sequence linking the thermal baths and Sainte-Marie Park with Place de Padoue to the south. Following an international architectural and planning competition in 2006, ANMA was missioned to draft an outline plan for the site and design two buildings: the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Nancy (Nancy engineering school) and Institut Jean-Lamour, a total of 42,000 m².
A WEB OF PUBLIC SPACES
ARTEM is a teaching and research project based on breaking down barriers between disciplines, with art, technology and management brought together to create the synergies that the Nancy artistic movement is famous for. The way that buildings are configured within the eponymous urban project reflects these ideas of openness and fusion. The new series of public spaces is based on existing routes that connect the whole site. The development spreads along the arcade, a vast semi-open publically accessible shared space that binds the institutions together, becoming a key feature of the urban environment.
A number of institutions will be grouped together at the site over the new few years: the École des Mines, École d’Art, Écoles de Commerces, École d’Administration (engineering, art, business and public administration schools) and Institut Jean Lamour, which is also involved in the project. The project site has been divided into neighbourhood-scale blocks to ensure that the schools and institute will create a true slice of the city. Each school occupies its own block, and these are in turn all connected to the arcade. The blocks are not designed in the traditional style, with buildings along the street; instead, the structures are erected in the centre of the blocks and connect with the street via a planted space. Paired together, these spaces delineate a courtyard garden shared by two schools. Each school is identified in the arcade by a special entrance that echoes Nancy’s vernacular architecture.
Every aspect of the ARTEM development reflects a commitment to saving energy, employing techniques that include ground-coupled heat exchangers, PV panels, rainwater harvesting and natural ventilation. Rainwater harvesting is emphasised, with water run-off from roofs fed into swales and ponds in the green courtyards. The many plants in the courtyards create a highly agreeable environment for occupants.
Place de Padoue is designed as a forecourt at the entrance to ARTEM, extending into the covered arcade. Thanks to its distinctive and unmistakable architecture, ARTEM is visible right from the tram stop, standing out with its large colourful and transparent faceted surfaces, palmiform pillars and micro-gardens.
THE ARTEM ARCADE
The unifying component of a long-term urban planning development whose various components - future schools and related facilities alongside landscaped areas and public spaces - will be built gradually, the ARTEM arcade is a signature creation for the city as a whole. It offers a new model of public space, with teaching and research buildings connected to it from the side. Both a centre for student activities and public space, the arcade is the unifying heart of the university hub.
PALMIFORM PILLARS
A branching steel frame and glazed coloured panels pay homage to the tradition of innovation and decoration espoused by the Nancy artistic movement. The main steel skeleton melds with the glazing and façade structures to form unusual palmiform pillars. This structure and the rhythm of the roofline create a scale attuned to the building’s exceptional length. Capitalising on solar energy gains, it creates a transition and buffer space that recovers heat and produces cooled air for the lecture halls, lobbies and entrances using ground-coupled heat exchangers. The glazed roof is fitted with PV panels that produce enough energy to cover lighting needs. The arcade features five micro-gardens protected behind benches that also act as walls. Plants are watered via a rainwater harvesting and storage system.