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IN PICTURES. La Sorbonne transforms its campus with a large futuristic arch

undefined undefined 15 mai 2024 undefined 14h32

undefined undefined 16 mai 2024 undefined 07h52

The Editor

© BIG-OFF - OXO

Students, professors, and start-ups from the Sorbonne will soon be united. In 2025, a brand new space will open on the Pierre and Marie Curie campus to bring together great minds, those who create knowledge and those who drive the market.

15,000 m2 of brand new space to (re)energize the university. This long-awaited project will finally come to life in 2025, when the Pierre and Marie Campus of the Sorbonne (5th arrondissement) unveils its shiny new arch with futuristic vibes. A "city of innovation", as its creators call it, which will host an incubator, a nursery, and a business hotel. Progress is unstoppable.


A place to exchange between businesses and research teams

Under study since 2011, it took 13 years of deliberations between Sorbonne University, the City of Paris, the Île-de-France region, and the State to see the project come to fruition. According to the university's website, the building aims to "bring together its innovation ecosystem, as close as possible to research teams and education", but also to "give visibility to this ecosystem, from conception to technological maturity through support and transfer", serving as a "additional lever for collaborations with socio-economic environments".

Simply put, this city is defined as a place of exchange.ong> among companies of all sizes and research teams in science and engineering at Sorbonne University, in order to strengthen the link between researchers and innovation. A kind of "interface between the university life of the campus and urban life," specifies the architectural firm OXO, in charge of the project with the firm BIG.


15,000 m2 of space, three distinct areas

The arch, with a considerable surface area of 15,000 m2, will be divided into three areas, public and private: an incubator, a nursery and a business hotel. Its ground floor, connected to the place de l'Institute du Monde Arabe, will house conference spaces, a café and a bookstore, with the backdrop of the suThe magnificent Notre-Dame Cathedral (reopening to the public on December 8, 2024). Upstairs, a restaurant will offer a panoramic view of Paris. 

Presented to the public, the images from the BIG design studio reveal a monumental and modern architecture, contrasting with the Haussmannian facades of the neighborhood. Here are the sketches of this upcoming mini-village, accessible to both scientists, engineers, and the general public.  

© BIG-OFF

Cite of Innovation
Sorbonne University 
Pierre and Marie Curie Campus 
4, place Jussieu – 5th
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