HEC Campus

de Martin Duplantier, David Chipperfield, Christian Hottin, Virginie Picon-Lefèbvre, Francesco Zuda

HEC Paris is a leading European school of advanced business studies with a global community of students from Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. In 2012, HEC Paris's campus near Versailles was redesigned by renowned architects Martin Duplantier and David Chipperfield to reflect the school's global character and its focus on open communication and exchange. HEC Campus: Evolution of a Model documents the transformation in close detail and with one hundred illustrations, including twenty newly commissioned photographs by award-winning French photographer Cyrille Weiner. After a brief history of HEC Paris since its foundation in 1881, the book takes readers through the planning and construction of its modern buildings throughout the 1960s by Ren Coulons, and the careful restoration of many of these buildings by Duplantier and Chipperfield. The architects also conceived an entirely new building and a surrounding park, which has become a key element of campus social life. Through essays and an interview with Martin Duplantier, the book also explores the interplay of preservation and renovation and demonstrates how this exemplary contemporary redesign can be taken as a model for this sort of planning.