In anticipation of the departure of ENS for Paris-Saclay, the City of Cachan is seeking to revitalise its campus (11.6 hectares) and to form a cluster of excellence for research, teaching, innovation and activities in relation to the Innovation Arc project. The site selected for the “Inventing the Greater Paris Metropolis” call for projects benefits from excellent accessibility and strong appeal. It is comprised of land free of any buildings, intended mainly for housing. The objective for candidates is to develop new, innovative ways of “making a city”, while giving priority to the incorporation of this new real estate complex within the urban environment and the landscape.

Current use

Free of buildings

Planned programme

Predominantly housing

Owner

Three-way repurchasing agreement between the State, the EPFIF, and the City

Land area

11.6 hectare campus (the exact tenement will be specified at a later date)

Planned nature of the transferred rights

Transfer

Urban context / existing buildings

Located in Cachan, just two kilometres from Paris, the site is found on land currently occupied by the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), which will move to the Paris Saclay campus in 2018. To offset this departure, the City aims to develop a comprehensive urban project for the campus.
The site is located near the city-centre and also benefits from proximity to Cachan's impressive urban landscapes, which includes the Loing and Lunain Aqueduct and its surrounding wooded areas. Adding to this natural environment are the gardens of neighboring residential areas and housing complexes incorporating vast green spaces. Many public educational, leisure and sports facilities are also located within 500m of the site.
The site is served by the RER B (Cachan station), less than 400m away, linking it to the centre of Paris in only 20 minutes, and by seven bus lines. The A6 motorway, 500m to the east, provides a direct connection to the Paris ring road and the Greater Paris motorway network.
In 2022, the site will benefit from improved accessibility with the opening of the Greater Paris Express Line 15, which will provide connections to lines serving the airports as well as major university and research centres (Plateau de Saclay, Paris Sud University).
The site is part of "Greater Paris Sciences and Health Campus", a large-scale development project, which is the subject of an agreement between the State and local authorities of the Bièvre scientific valley. It plans for the development of clusters of innovation and economic activities, for which the first projects will be implemented starting in 2018.

Prospects for innovation

Innovative solutions for sustainable and intelligent building methods, innovations expected in terms of securing the project's place in the existing environment and creating interactions with the territory.