Aix-en-Provence displays its ambitions in the metropolitan … – Monitor

Thecamp, an international digital innovation campus dedicated to the city of the future on the plateau of Arbois, is the flagship projects of the French Tech label awarded to territory Aix-Marseille. Designed by Corinne Vezonni, the project should start in September.

 
 

 © Golem Images for Corinne Vezzoni Associates Architects – architecture Thecamp be unconventional with circular buildings protected by geotextile fabric.

Already associated with Marseille for the award of the French Tech label, soon linked by a common destiny to his former rival in the framework of the future Metropole Aix-Marseille-Provence, the Aix, with the Pays d’Aix, displays its metropolitan ambition with the launch of the project “Thecamp” on the Technopole de l’Arbois. A first symbolic step was taken in early July, after the Economic Forum of Aix-en-Provence, with the official entry of the transaction in the presence of the Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Emmanuel Macron and the founding partners. The construction should start concretely on the ground in September.

This American campus dedicated to the creation, innovation and the digital experimentation for smart and sustainable city will gather students, researchers, business leaders and communities but also SMEs and specialized startups. Purpose: to allow collaborative work between these multiple actors, whether public or private, experiment and create new services and technologies related to the city of the future with this unique ecosystem but also conduct experiments in pilot neighborhoods.

Twelve public and private partners commit

The project is supported by Frédéric Chevalier, an Aachen entrepreneur known for founding the company and the fund High Co Boost investment and has already succeeded in uniting a dozen partners not least around this ambitious project: the Crédit Agricole Alpes Provence, Cisco, Sodexo Steelcade, the Vinci Group, the Regional Council PACA, the department of Bouches -the-Rhone, Aix, Marseille Provence Métropole, the CCI Marseille Provence, the Caisse des Dépôts, the CEPAC …

 
 

 © Golem Images for Corinne Vezzoni Associates Architects – Between circular buildings, open spaces encourage meetings and exchanges.

And to design this unusual project, both a place of life and work, he appealed to the Marseilles architect, Corinne Vezzoni. On 7 acres of natural terrain, facing the Sainte Victoire mountain and near the plateau of the Duranne, 12,000 m² of buildings are planned dedicated to businesses and training but also to accommodation (250 rooms) and restoration . They will take the form of a series of cylindrical modules, sheltered under a common roof -a geotextile 7 500 m² shaped Flavoured Papers- circular and between buildings, open spaces allow meetings and exchanges.

An atypical architecture

“We wanted to make Thecamp a fully integrated project to its environment, in connection with the landscape, to image of what should be the future metropolis. The housing will form a thick ribbon, protected from the outside while the incubators will be open, transparent, like the relaxation and meeting spaces, “said the Marseille architect.

Apart from the concrete to the cylinders The site should favor a dry chain. The budget is 21 million excluding VAT and the work will last 18 months. Operation partner Vinci Construction should definitely take part in the work. Thecamp initiators announce 2,500 managers trained and 150 students the first year, 2 500 jobs in five years generated by the start-ups in 5 years and 150 direct and indirect jobs by the opening.