Paris Masséna, historic industrial area and old railway yard is already home to hundreds of artists and young creative people who in the “Frigos” have made their studios. It will also soon become home for the university “Paris 7 Denis Diderot” which once having closed the site at Jussieu will move into four buildings situated in this area: two old industrial buildings which will be converted – the Grands Moulins and the Halle aux Farines – and two new buildings. The four commissions have been awarded to the four winners of a competition set in 2001.
The conversion of the Grands Moulins – the historic industrial mill in the Ville Lumiere built between 1917 and 1921 by Georges Wybo which was in use right up to 1997 – will be carried out by Rudy Ricciotti and will include the central library, lecture theatres and research laboratories, student services and the university canteen. In the Halle aux Farines – a concrete building put up in the fifties by a student of Auguste Perret, Denis Honneger – will house the ampitheatres and rooms for ordinary courses. The practice responsible for this project will be Labfac (Finn Geipel and Nicolas Michelin).
The two new buildings have been assigned to François Chochon and Laurent Pierre (for the new biology labs) and the team Philippe Chaix and Jean-Paul Morel (for the physics labs).
The ultimate aim is to built a campus which is open towards its surroundings and able to participate in the life of the area and that by 2004 can accommodate 20 000 students in 110 000 square metres (which is destined to become 150 000 square metres by 2009). By 2004 the two conversions should be completed whilst in 2005 the work on the new buildings should be completed.
Two photographers have been invited to document the transformation of the area and communicate the atmosphere: from Prague Josef Koudelka who in black and white has attempted to capture the spirit of the area and Aymeric Fouquez who has concentrated on the spaces inside the Grands Moulins and the Halle aux Farines with a series of colour photographs.
until 26.5.2002
Une Université en Chantier, Paris 13e
Institut Français d’Architecture (IFA)
6, Rue de Tournon, Paris
T +33-1-46339036
http://www.archi.fr/IFA
