Campus des Cézeaux

The Cézeaux campus is located on a basalt plateau that has since been absorbed into the city. Its design was conceived from 1963 onwards by the Paris-based architects Daniel Badani (1914–2006) and Pierre Roux-Dorlut (1919–1995), in collaboration with Clermont-Ferrand architects Jean-Louis Douat, Antoine Espinasse and Paul Lanquette. The project included(…)

The Cézeaux campus is located on a basalt plateau that has since been absorbed into the city. Its design was conceived from 1963 onwards by the Paris-based architects Daniel Badani (1914–2006) and Pierre Roux-Dorlut (1919–1995), in collaboration with Clermont-Ferrand architects Jean-Louis Douat, Antoine Espinasse and Paul Lanquette. The project included buildings dedicated to teaching, a library, a university restaurant and student accommodation. It was based on a sober, functional architectural approach, organised around a rational master plan and an industrialised construction system. A prefabrication plant for building components was therefore installed on site. However, only the first phase of the original project was carried out between 1968 and 1973.

Under the “1% for art” scheme, the campus was enriched with works of art in the 1970s. Victor Vasarely took over the central square with a paved design conceived according to the principles of Optical Art (Op Art), an aesthetic based on visual illusions. Destroyed in 2007 due to its poor condition, the work was replaced by Riu-Kiu, a motif created by Vasarely in 1956 and executed by his pupil Bruno Allart. This enamelled sheet-metal mural now adorns the lecture theatre building. Other notable works include La Dématérialisation (1972) by Francis Pellerin (1915–1988), Les Murs-Fontaines (1972) by Ervin Patkaï (1937–1985), of which part has been preserved, and Silhouettes forming a receptacle for the teaching imparted by Knowledge (1978) by Michell (born 1936).

Since the 1990s, the campus has been rewriting its history by celebrating contemporary architecture: Polytech (architects Bresson, Combe and Ondet, followed by Panthéon); the Corpuscular Physics Laboratory (architects Brenac and Gonzalez); the National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture (IRSTEA, architects Hauvette and Atelier 4), with its maple-wood brise-soleil; the French Institute of Advanced Mechanics (IFMA, architects Ameil and Jalicon), whose form evokes the industrial world; and the Magmas and Volcanoes Laboratory (Groupe 6 Architectes), with its unstable volumes, reminiscent of magma in motion.