CITADEL UNIVERSITY CAMPUS
2010 – 2018, AMIENS, FRANCE
In the context of a project to bring student life into the city centre, the northern French town of Amiens decided to convert its 17th-century citadel into a new campus for the Université de Picardie Jules-Verne. Several faculties regroup within the walls of Henri IV’s brick fortress, along with a host of public amenities and a huge park, opening up the area to the whole city. The citadel was completed in 1622 on the northern edge of the centre of Amiens. Occupying some 13 hectares (32 acres), the fortress has long constituted a major obstacle to development of the north of the city, which has occurred piecemeal, without strategy or infrastructure. It was recognised that the development of this site offered the opportunity to create a much-needed link between the city centre and its northern neighbourhoods, with far-reaching benefits for the overall urban development of Amiens.
