INRAE

Extension of the building of the National Institute for Agronomic Research, Jouy-en-Josas (FR)

The extension to the INRA building resonates with the undulating landscape of the Bièvre in the south-east of Paris, within which it takes its place between field and forest. It differs from the 1980s building, whose brief it complements with new research laboratories, both by its expression of form and by being anchored in the site. 

The laboratories slot into a sloping site and maintain one continuous roofline over the three separate volumes. The cameleon effect is ensured: the building merges into the rolling landscape that seems to breath it in. Its planted roof perfects this insertion, while the fume hoods – laboratory ventilation extractors – in the roof step out, a reminder that the ensemble is man-made, another miniature city. The composition is completed by a series of sun-screens on the facade, revealing or concealing the landscape, resonating with it.