Excelia University campus
In Tours’ 2 Lions district, MU Architecture has completed Excelia University campus, a pioneering building that sets a new standard for sustainable and reversible design in France.
The five-storey structure is the country’s first public-access building to combine a timber frame with straw-bale insulation. More than a technical achievement, the project is conceived as a manifesto: an architecture that is ecological, adaptable, and generous in its relationship to the city.
The building’s slender, stratified form negotiates a fine balance between urban fabric and landscape, preserving views to the Cher river. A double-height glazed base anchors the project with an open auditorium, lobby, and social spaces that merge campus and public life. Higher up, stepped terraces on the second and fifth floors lighten the silhouette and create landscaped pauses.
Materiality reinforces the dual ambition of solidity and lightness. Concrete, limited to the base and core, ensures stability. Zinc cladding reflects light across the façades, while locally sourced timber and straw bring warmth, tactility, and thermal performance.
Together with oak joinery and mobile solar screens, these passive strategies guarantee bioclimatic comfort without mechanical cooling.
The real innovation, however, lies in reversibility. The post-and-beam timber frame and non-load-bearing façades make the building fully adaptable: conceived today for higher education, it could tomorrow accommodate offices, housing, or civic functions.
Excelia is more than an academic facility, it is a civic landmark and a pedagogical tool, demonstrating how architecture can be frugal, high-performing, and open to multiple futures.
