Facing the need to imagine the productive city of tomorrow in the age of resilience, we focused ourselves on one of the largest logistics sites in the Paris region: former Galeries Lafayette warehouses (1959-1963). It is on this site, between two banks, in the middle of Ile Saint-Denis, that our Production and Crafts Campus is settling.
The project is a response to one observation: many sectors of the French industrial sector are facing labour shortages, particularly of young workers, while at the same time, in Seine Saint-Denis, nearly a quarter of young people aged 18-25 year-olds are unemployed.
The Campus takes advantage of the strategic location of the warehouses, close to main infrastructures, to mobilise a new economy: an industrial centre, combining craftmanship teaching and industrial production.
A circuit for transporting raw materials by river has been installed under the buildings. The interconnection between the industrial hub, an incubator for young companies and the school, housed in the old factory unifies the professional and academic world.
