"Searching for the Grand Paris"
"What is the Plateau de Saclay?"
-It is quite a well-known name, but a lot of people do not know what it is.
It is a large plateau, a large clearing,
south of Paris, about the same level as Orly airport.
It is miraculously preserved.
The plateau is essentially made up of open spaces
and a large amount of agriculture.
As it is near to Paris,
since the middle of the last century,
it has been a center of business, particularly for research,
with universities, technology companies, etc.,
which did not have enough space in Paris or the inner suburbs,
and so they started to relocate to the fringes,
to this plateau.
All of this resulted in an impressive group, on paper,
so it has a strong foundation.
It has almost as many resources,
in terms of research and development,
as the center of Paris.
Slightly less, but still a considerable amount.
It produces 80% of research in France.
The problem is that it is very spread out,
because the plateau is very large -
it is almost the same size as Paris city center -
and it is very fragmented,
because it has the same amount of people as in the city,
but they have no real reason to work closely together.
So, we have a kind of sleeping giant,
in that all these businesses have considerable potential
on a national and international scale, but they are extremely fragmented.
So, for Saclay,
it is necessary to transform this accumulation of businesses
into a true hub.
"What are the main issues?"
The main issue is overcoming this fragmentation
because the theory is if we create synergy within the area
and create a real hub, a lot of things will be happening,
and this is what we are observing in the field.
So, there are issues on many levels.
First of all, there is an international consideration.
We must be aware of the fact that today, throughout the world,
whether in the United States, in China, or in Europe,
innovation and creation of new products,
new ideas,
what drives the economy,
all these are moving towards these large hubs,
which I call industrial or educational hubs.
The typical example is the Silicon Valley.
On a global level,
we see that the Parisian region, Île-de-France,
is monocentric,
too monocentric these days,
with everything happening in the center of Paris.
But we have these hubs that are outside of the center,
in fact, not that far from Paris, which could become real hubs
if we were adpoting a polycentric approach.
Also, there are local issues,
including the fact that the urban development is very behind schedule,
which is not particularly pleasant,
services are almost non-existent, apart from by car,
and so, there is also an issue of urban planning.
Saclay is three projects in one.
The first project, which is the most talked about in the press,
is the construction of the university.
The first issue was working out how to bring everything together
in a system, which has been created,
called the University of Paris-Saclay.
"Paris" because it is Paris, in fact. It is Grand Paris, but it is Paris.
This university,
if we look at its resources, its workforce, its research potential,
it is the best in France, without doubt.
It is destined to enter into the top 20 in the international rankings,
although that is not the primary objective.
This is a challenge considering the fact that Saclay is a place
that assembles two worlds which have been ignoring each other,
universities, on one hand, and Grandes Écoles, on the other.
the latter of which are very selective, and the former less so,
but Paris-Sud University has a huge research potential.
So, we are bringing together this fine team.
It is not easy, there are highs and lows,
there are times we move forward and times we move backward.
We must make sure everyone keeps their identity.
École Polytechnique has its own strong national identity,
slightly less internationally,
but they do not want to lose their identity
and disappear into a larger group.
We have to find a clever compromise
between the "federation" and the "confederation",
so everyone can keep their identity.
That is the first project, which is already underway.
The second part of the project is, obviously, economic development
because all of that, social and economic development,
has the aim of creating these new commercial activities,
positioning France within new industries,
digital technologies, et cetera.
So, along with this, we have the problem
of relatively weak historical relationships
between the university world and the business world.
In France, there is often a kind of ignorant mutual distrust,
so we must also unite the economic world,
which includes the incredible potential of large corporate research centers
in large French companies,
but it also includes an ecosystem of start-ups,
and small and medium-sized businesses.
Things are progressing on this front, but there is no miracle solution.
Networks need to be established,
synapses need to be established,
between the different components involved
and this is underway.
The third element, which I was in charge of,
is that of urban planning, which is made up of two factors.
Firstly, accessibility,
which includes the Metro project, around the Grand Paris,
with the extension of line 18...
The extension of line 14, which will go down to Orly,
and line 18 will go from Orly to Versailles,
The automated Metro system, which will serve the Plateau de Saclay.
Then there is the issue of housing, of urbanity,
because at the moment, it is not urbanized.
These place is like an industrial park.
We developped the concept of an urban campus
meaning we will build housing,
mainly for students, but also for the people, for families,
not just for the researchers.
We will create a real city district,
what we call a campus town, which has all the necessary facilities.
"What challenges have been encountered?"
Certainly, one of the challenges is the issue of governance
because we are on the fringes of the inner and outer Parisian suburbs,
and the town maps have not changed, we are close to Versailles,
the town map has not changed since Louis XIV.
These are the medium-sized towns in Île-de-France.
The largest towns are Massy, Palaiseau and Gif,
which are medium-sized.
We have to construct the campus on just the southern section
which is one part of the overall project.
We have to construct over six towns, each with their own planning policy.
Some of these towns have said
that there is no way that we can do what we are doing in their area.
Period.
We are part of a national project,
but in a national project,
the prefects signs the permits
but they must conform to the PLU, the local urbanization plan,
decided by the towns.
These towns, even collectively, even if they are interconnected,
do not have the means, nor the expertise, nor the money
to manage an operation of this scale.
It is currently the largest operation in Île-de-France.
So, that is why the state created,
in opposition to some local politicians,
but in agreement with a large number of others,
a public institution
to carry out,
in close consultation with them,
these urbanization projects.
Within the program, we have one third on housing,
one third on economic development, and one third on the educational hub.