Aerospace Campus Toulouse  

Location: Toulouse, France

Client: Grand Toulouse
Date: 2011 (1st Phase) Competition
Total Area: 193,700m²
Budget: €600 million (investment value)

Team credits:
FOA Partner in charge: Alejandro Zaera-Polo
Project Architect: Pablo Ros
Design Team: Pep Wennberg, Esther Rovira, Nacho Toribio, Massimo Tepedino, Carmelo Zappulla

This project involved the redevelopment of the former Montaudran Aerodrome in Toulouse, as the future centre to the Aerospace Valley, by consolidating the Centre of the European Aerospace Industry including production, research and education. The project would provide 193,700m² of offices, research facilities and leisure and retail areas in a 40Ha site at the core of the Aerospace Valley in Toulouse, close to the Rangueil Scientific Campus and the Paul Sabatier University.

The Montaudran Aerodrome has great historical significance for the French Aerospace Industry as the location of the Aeropostale services – famous for counting Antoine de Saint Exupery amongst its pilots – and the location of the Latecoere factory, one of the world pioneers in the aerospace industry. The design retains the trace of the former runway as an historical trace of the origins of the Aerospace Industry in Toulouse.

Using the presence of a very high water table on the site, the former runway would be replaced by a water retention pond to contribute to the microclimate of the complex through adiabatic cooling. The Canal will also function as a collector and reservoir to provide irrigation to the nearly 20 hectares of green spaces that the complex will provide and will become the main public space feature of the future Aerospace Campus. The volume of above grade parking has been sculpted into a socle that will generate a theatrical public space at the centre of the complex.

The complex would be totally autonomous in terms of energy supply through to the installation of a carbon zero energy system with a combination of solar collection, biofuel and GSHC. The buildings were designed with energy-efficient features like atria, shaded façades and mansard-like green roofs with solar panels.