Écublens () is a municipality in Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, located in the district of Ouest Lausannois. It is a suburb of Lausanne and is served by the Lausanne metro line 1 and several bus lines. The nearest train station is Renens.
History
A Hallstatt era grave was discovered in Dorigny. Three Bronze Age graves were found in Valeyre and several La Tène culture graves have been found in Bassenges and Valeyre. A motte (a raised earthen, fortified hill) of an unknown age is found at a place in the municipality which is known as Chateau-de-la-Motte. A connection between the motte and nearby Roman era artifacts has not been established. This plan was not fulfilled, and the Écublens aerodrome fell into disuse. There was an effort in the 1950s to revive the plan and build an 1100 m runway along with facilities for regional and air taxi operations as the Lausanne-Ecublens Regional Airport (). A two-stage proposal foresaw paving at least one of the smaller grass surface runways as well to support recreational and executive use, but ultimately this plan as well was shelved.
Strong growth in the agricultural industry in the 1960s fueled to a population explosion mostly through immigration. In addition, the municipality grew due to the influx of several large companies: in 1959, Socsil AG, in 1962, Socorex Isba AG, in 1964 Nokia-Maillefer Sapal AG, in 1970, ARL AG (Laboratory), in 1972, Leduc-Thévenaz Sirec AG and in 1979 the administration of Migros Vaud.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 9.5% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 27.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 16.6%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.2% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4.4%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 22.8% is used for growing crops and 2.3% is pastures, while 2.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality includes the village of Le Motty, which is the administrative and religious center of the municipality, the rural village of Renges, and the hamlets of Bassenges, Villars, Epenex and Dorigny. Écublens is located on a moraine. Three rivers run through the municipality: the Venoge, Sorge and Chamberonne. Écublens contains the campuses of the University of Lausanne (since 1970) and the (since 1978).
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Azure and Gules, a bend Or overall.
Demographics
thumb|upright|Church of Écublens
thumb|View of the village square also known as the Motty.
Écublens has a population () of . , 43.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 13.1%. It has changed at a rate of 7.8% due to migration and at a rate of 6.1% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (7,825 or 76.5%), with Italian being second most common (667 or 6.5%) and German being third (467 or 4.6%). There are 4 people who speak Romansh.
, there were 4,387 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 4,740 married individuals, 463 widows or widowers and 637 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 4,439 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household.
there were 4,830 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 1,752. There were 524 single room apartments and 421 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 4,251 apartments (88.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 449 apartments (9.3%) were seasonally occupied and 130 apartments (2.7%) were empty.
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Heritage sites of national significance
thumb|upright|A building of the [[École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne|EPFL in Écublens]]
The Archives of Modern Construction at the (EPFL), the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne and University of Lausanne manuscripts department and the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 24.95% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (24.61%), the Green Party (14.18%) and the FDP (11.25%). In the federal election, a total of 1,956 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 40.4%.
Economy
, Écublens had an unemployment rate of 5%. , there were 22 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. 2,734 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 143 businesses in this sector. 9,226 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 373 businesses in this sector.
, there were 5,896 workers who commuted into the municipality and 4,007 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.5 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 1.7% of the workforce coming into Écublens are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.0% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 23% used public transportation to get to work, and 57.9% used a private car. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 803 children of which 502 children (62.5%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 625 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 548 students in those schools. There were also 31 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.
, there were 1,901 students in Écublens who came from another municipality, while 762 residents attended schools outside the municipality.