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The transformation of a historic complex into an urban campus for France’s renowned university that reflects the institution's ambition for intellectual and social innovation, and is breathing new life into the heart of Paris

Sciences Po L’Artillerie Campus

Client
Sciences Po
Location
Paris, France
Size
2.5 hectares/5.4 acres; Facilities: 16,600 sqm floor area / 178,700 sqft
Services
Planning and Urban Design
Additional Services
Space Planning
Status
Completed November 2021

Recently completed, the project is the materialization of the winning competition entry led by Sogelym Dixence, including French architects Wilmotte & Associés and Moreau Kusunoki, Sasaki (urban design), Pierre Bortolussi (historic conservation) and Mugo (landscape architecture).

Sciences Po is a highly selective institution that has educated many of France’s elite politicians, civil servants, and business leaders since the 19th century and is today a global university, convening students and faculty from around the world. The 146-year-old school purchased the centrally-located Hôtel de l’Artillerie in 2016 to expand its footprint in Paris. The compact site was formerly a Dominican monastery in Place Saint-Thomas d’Aquin, used in the nineteenth century as a weapons museum and by the Defense Ministry’s Central Committee of the Artillery.

The Sciences Po campus is an important part of a larger cluster of educational facilities in the Parisian Rive Gauche. Unlike most of its academic counterparts, Sciences Po is located in a rich zone of exchange, at the crossroads of learning, practice and culture. The development of the new campus to the north of boulevard Saint-Germain includes a library, classrooms, an entrepreneurship incubator, new social spaces, a cafeteria, and a concentration of research centers.

The implemented scheme leverages the courtyards of the existing complex to establish a sequence of outdoor spaces that are carefully integrated with academic, social and research activities. At the heart of the L’Artillerie , the Learning Garden creates a forum for engaged learning, events and lectures that is anchored by a new library and a pavilion addition that houses collaboration spaces, a cafeteria and exhibition hall.

The initiative is part of a Sciences Po 2022 plan and will build upon the school’s existing presence to the south of Boulevard Saint-Germain, which is home to iconic amphitheaters, classrooms, an executive education program, the historical library, and administrative offices. More than a physical expansion of the campus, the Artillery project is a catalyzing force behind the university’s ambitions to reinvent their teaching and research model in the 21st century. 

For more information contact Dennis Pieprz.

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