Entropia cromatica in una architettura didattica: Jussieu 16M – l’Atrium

Since the early sixties the campus of Jussieu in Paris has been hosting the most important medical and scientific pole of France composed of the University Paris VI, Paris VII and of the Institute of Physics of the Earth (IPGP). The 330 000 sqmt building complex has a capacity of 40.000 students. The technological characteristics of the building complex, the need of a radical logistic reorganization of the didactic and research structures, and the technological obsolescence of the technical elements were the starting points for one of the greatest operation in building renovation of the public property in Europe today. With the new planning of the Athenaeum some scientific structures have been relocated and a technological renovation took part in the Jussieu complex with an operation of renovation and reclamation of the existing structures and the realization of new ones. The first one to be completed in June 2006 was the Jussieu 16M building - the Atrium – designed by Périphériques Architectes. Colour had an important role, used as an orientation and disorientation guiding element in a system strictly organized according to the geometric grid of the existing structure. The colour used in an aggressive and vivacious way, welcomes the students of the first years of the Athenaeum, following them from the opened atrium to the classrooms and to the laboratories, each one identified by a chromatic code that pervades all the structural technical elements. Epoxy resin, enamel and plastic laminates dress and soften the hard concrete prefabricated structures that otherwise would have shown to their observes nothing more but their power.