Henning Larsen wins NEOMA’s new Reims campus competition

NEOMA Business School

Overlooking the channel in Reims, Henning Larsen’s design for NEOMA Business School’s new campus of 26,000 m2 aims to accommodate 4700 students and is scheduled to open for the start of the 2025 academic year. After an international competition Henning Larsen has been named the designer of NEOMA’s new French Business School, in Reims, France.

Forty internationally renowned architects’ practices, all with a portfolio of major projects in higher education, competed to design these new spaces. The contract was awarded to the Danish company chosen for a project combining innovation, respect for the environment and above all a focus on student life. Besides Henning Larsen, the winning team includes Patriarche, Egis, Elioth, Etamine, Acoustb and Creafactory.

Located west of the center of Reims, the site chosen for the new NEOMA school is part of a neighborhood in transfer: Port Colbert. This is a former industrial site today partially abandoned to which the city of Reims wants to give a second wind. In the past, the Port Colbert district was full of all the city industries: Reims breweries and cast-iron workshops aluminum among other things.

The objective of the city of Reims and of our project is to convert this sector, while preserving and enhancing what makes the identity of this place: its history and its industrial heritage. As is often the case in centrally located former industrial areas budding small businesses and local “pop up” events that have populated the area of the site in recent years. The new NEOMA campus is inspired by this entrepreneurial atmosphere that has changed the area from a geographical location to a PLACE in people’s minds.

“With the new NEOMA, we want to keep this impression of “anything can happen” and create an open invitation to shape and to take ownership of its environment and its future,” says Søren Øllgaard, Design Director, Europe and partner at Henning Larsen. The new campus, which opens towards the canal and parks that surround it, the offers views of bustling student life and the central structure in wood attracts the attention of passers-by with its stepped green landscape.

The school holds 85 classrooms, three amphitheatres and event space with a 750-seat auditorium accessible from outside. In line with the school’s strong commitments in terms of sustainable development, the future Reims site aims to be an environmental benchmark, with internationally recognised certifications such as LEED, WELL and E+C. The project also places the health and well-being of students and staff at the centre of its design. Source by Henning Larsen.

  • Location: Reims, France
  • Architect: Henning Larsen and Patriarche
  • Landscape: Henning Larsen
  • Structural Engineer: Egis
  • Sustainability: Elioth and Etamine
  • Acoustics: Acoustb
  • Stage design: Creafactory
  • Client: NEOMA Business School
  • Certifications: LEED Gold and WELL Gold, E+C
  • Size: 26,000 sqm / 280,000 sqft
  • Construction Start: 2023
  • Expected Completion: 2025
  • Images: Courtesy of Henning Larsen