Ateliers Jean Nouvel and France-based practice OXO Architectes have won a competition to design an inhabited mountain for a site in the Sophia Antipolis technology park in Antibes, France.

Called Ecotone Antibes, the €44 million ($50 million USD) project will act as the main entrance of the Sophia Antipolis technology park, which was founded in 1969 and houses over 2,000 companies. 

Image courtesy of Ateliers Jean Nouvel + OXO Architectes

The new project is comprised of a hilly structure that is covered by fully lush vegetation and various plants. Developed in collaboration with Jean Foussat, alongside Jean Nouvel and OXO Architectes, the landscape of the project will be realized by landscape architect Jean Mus. 

Image courtesy of Ateliers Jean Nouvel + OXO Architectes

Described as the "21st century campus of France", the mountainous structure, covering a total of 40, 000-square-metre area, will contain offices, hotel and amenities and co-working spaces. The project is developed by Compagnie de Phalsbourg. The architects described the project as "the excellence incarnation of biomimicry in south of France". 

Image courtesy of Ateliers Jean Nouvel + OXO Architectes

"Sadly, there are also places where you’re forced to live in a particular era in conditions that are often criminally sacrilegious," said Ateliers Jean Nouvel. 

"How, then, do we brand, design and construct, the new small-scale programs destined for the side of a busy freeway? How do we show the place, its hilly contours, its skylines, its trees, its terrain, and not work against these features? How do we create lasting attractiveness?

Image © Luxigon

"Contextualist architecture, either through contrast or symbiosis, has a duty to answer those questions," Nouvel added.

"How do we live, be, in Antibes, alongside the freeway, before the tollgate? How do we design the architecture so it’s part of the landscape? How do we make Antibes proud of this other hillside?."

Image © Luxigon

"By creating harmonies, making the architectural forms and colours echo the site’s biotope and the distant but very much present skyline, and by being welcoming and attractive," continued the architect.

Image courtesy of Ateliers Jean Nouvel + OXO Architectes

Image courtesy of Ateliers Jean Nouvel + OXO Architectes

Project facts

Architects: Ateliers Jean Nouvel, OXO Architectes, and Foussat Bapt
Landscape architect: Jean Mus
Date: 2018
Location: Antibes, France
Type: Mixed-use
Description: Offices, Hotel, Services
Owner: Compagnie de phalsbourg, Codeurs et compagnie
Area: 40,000 sqm
Status: Competition winner

Top image courtesy of Ateliers Jean Nouvel and OXO Architectes

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