The Hôtel de l’Artillerie: An innovative future campus in the heart of Paris
THE PLAN:
A MULTIDISCIPLINARY AND INNOVATIVE URBAN CAMPUS CENTRED ON THE ARTILLERIE
A VAST, ALL-INCLUSIVE COMPLEX
The Artillerie will give the Sciences Po campus in Paris a new heart. The new complex linking the Artillerie and 13 rue de l'Université will represent half of Sciences Po's surface area in Paris, with nearly 22,000m². This is enough to bring together all faculty and almost all Master's students; the new integrated space will be home to our ten research centres and six of our seven graduate schools. Around a redeveloped cloister, gardens, library and cafeteria, the academic community will move freely from learning spaces into innovative, flexible, open and connected work and study spaces. Meanwhile, the public will gain access to this architectural gem for the first time.
NEW ICONIC SPACES
The Cour Sébastopol: a cloister to promote reflection
A place of exceptional harmony, the old cloister and garth of the Dominican monks adjoined to the Saint Thomas Aquinas Church will be renovated and open to the public. It will offer economics, political science and history faculty a space conducive to reflection, with work areas and a research library. Computer rooms, meeting rooms and collaborative workspaces will be put in to meet all users' needs.
The Cour Treuil de Beaulieu: an old orchard to see projects bloom
The monks' old orchard will be replanted. Below this garden area, journalism and communication students will have specific spaces for learning in real-world conditions: newsrooms, collaborative workspaces, TV and radio studios, editing room, etc.
The Grande Cour Gribeauval: a garden to cultivate knowledge
The monastery's former kitchen garden will once again be used as a garden at ground level. Under the large courtyard, the basement will accommodate the library and its flexible study spaces. The area will be a hub for creation and digital technology, with a fablab, the Medialab and the Sciences Po incubator, along with other group work rooms. Here, a dedicated space for economic initiative and entrepreneurship will be connected to the research centres and the future school of management.
A centre for student life will occupy a new building above ground, with a cafeteria, social areas, and open spaces for users to enjoy as they see fit.
The sociology, economics, political science and history research centres will also be located here, close to the Urban School and the Doctoral School.
Two connected sites
The Artillerie site will be connected to the nearby site at 13, rue de l’Université by new circulation spaces at ground-level and underground.
NEW SPACES FOR LEARNING DIFFERENTLY
• A site where nearly 14,000m² will be developed in total
• The site at 13, rue de l’Université and the Artillerie will form a complex of nearly 22,000m²
• New classrooms: 8 flexible classrooms (between 60m² and 75m²) suited to interactive seminars
• Around 10 rooms for group projects (320m²)
• New computer rooms including a stock-market floor for the school of management
• 345 seats/study spaces on the site (library and free spaces) and 150 news seats over the whole campus
• A learning centre of nearly 1,000m²
• A modern research library in direct proximity to the research centres.
• 300m² dedicated to entrepreneurship and business incubation
• Hundreds of square metres of new communal and social areas for students, including a new 500 m² cafeteria
A responsible campus
With 5,500m² of green spaces, and why not soon a kitchen garden and orchard, the new complex formed by the Artillerie and 13, rue de l’Université aims for the lightest possible environmental footprint. Priority is also given to the accessibility of spaces and facilities for all users.
A REDESIGNED "CAMPUS DISTRICT"
The Artillerie is also an opportunity to rethink all of Sciences Po's sites in Paris, with different educational functions depending on students' study path.
• Heart of the campus: 27, rue Saint-Guillaume and 56, rue des Saints-Pères
On the historic site, the iconic lecture theatres will be equipped to accommodate large lectures in an updated, more interactive format and major public events. The library on this site will cater chiefly to undergraduate students.
• New site: 13, rue de l'Université will form a single complex with the Hôtel de l'Artillerie.
This is the home of new spaces and learning formats conducive to interdisciplinarity.
• 30, rue Saint Guillaume: home to Sciences Po's administrative services and classrooms.
• 9 rue de la Chaise: a one-stop shop for all student services (financial aid, housing, health, disability, etc.)
• 28, rue des Saints-Pères: the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) and CERI will form a complex dedicated to international affairs.
More broadly, the project is a unique opportunity to improve urban planning around the consolidated Sciences Po campus: pedestrian areas to better manage student flows, improved access for disabled students, effective signage and innovative street furniture. As such, the academic soul of Saint-Germain-des-Prés will brought to the fore in conjunction with the district's other institutions, particularly Université Paris Descartes, our partner in Université Sorbonne Paris Cité.
WHAT THE ARTILLERIE MAKES POSSIBLE:
AN INNOVATIVE SOCIAL SCIENCE CAMPUS IN THE HEART OF PARIS
TEACHING TOMORROW: A REVOLUTION IN LEARNING METHODS
Education is currently on the verge of a revolution driven by two concomitant factors: an increasing demand for self-directed learning and the digital technology to accelerate and democratise knowledge production and sharing.
The role of the research university is changing: the priority is now to put that knowledge into perspective and break down barriers between disciplines to advance our understanding of a complex world. It is more than ever a question of learning to learn. Higher education must equip students with new skills suited to the jobs of the future: creativity, the ability to collaborate and to put one's ideas into action.
SCIENCES PO, A STAKEHOLDER IN THE EDUCATION REVOLUTION
Building on a tradition of pedagogical innovation and freedom, Sciences Po wants to contribute to this revolution by allowing innovative learning methods and practices to emerge. Thanks to its educational approach, Sciences Po has the opportunity to be at the forefront of several key aspects of the current revolution: the general breaking down of barriers between disciplines and communities, learning through practice, and connection to learning resources. Such an ambition can only be realised by inventing a new decompartmentalized urban campus: a platform for multidisciplinary research and teaching, engaged with the wider community. This vision is perfectly in line with the Sciences Po 2022 strategic plan, and it is this plan that is made possible by the Artillerie.
A MULTIDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION AND RESEARCH PLATFORM, ENGAGED WITH THE WIDER COMMUNITY
By bringing our schools (Master's level) and our research centres together, the Artillerie site will bring about an ongoing interdisciplinary symposium where different forms of knowledge meet and circulate. It will promote interdisciplinary emulation, heighten our research potential and facilitate knowledge transfer.
As well as concentrating the academic community, the Artillerie will be outward-looking and dedicated to knowledge dissemination, with spaces designed for group and collaborative work, spaces to nurture links with start-ups and business, etc.
SPACES ADAPTED TO THE NEW FRONTIERS OF KNOWLEDGE
The Artillerie will enable Sciences Po to take on the mission of a 21st century university: bringing a community together around the explanation, comparison, testing and experimentation of knowledge. With its range of technology-enabled, flexible teaching and learning spaces, this site creates the optimal conditions for interaction and for comparing and interpreting ideas.
The university must also train creative students, capable of working together in a multicultural environment and putting their ideas into practice. To this end, the Artillerie offers "third places", midway between learning and social spaces, to discuss, create, innovate and collaborate. There, students will be able to develop the skills and attitudes essential to the young professionals of tomorrow.
Finally, the new library planned on the Artillery site will be a real learning centre. It will offer the largest possible range of online resources and the services to help users explore them, as well as flexible workspaces for all types of use (spaces for group work, individual study spaces, etc.).
AN EXPERIMENTAL CAMPUS AT THE HEART OF THE CITY, CONNECTED TO THE PROFESSIONAL WORLD
Employers place increasing value on experience – as much the type of experience that attests to technical skills as experience that helps develop behavioural skills. Students' expectations are changing too: tomorrow's graduates want above all to join organisations where they feel their work is meaningful. As such, practitioners and learners must be in contact on a daily basis.
The Artillerie will make this contact possible. Only an urban campus in the heart of the economic, cultural and social hub can provide the constant interaction that must underpin the dayto-day life of the university of the future. With the university so close to business and decisionmaking centres, professionals are just a step away from coming to teach, tutor group projects, present their organisations and more. Meanwhile, students are educated through a constant interplay between core academic learning and the social and professional environment around them, building their study path and career plan in contact with the real world. In the heart of the city, Sciences Po's Artillerie will further consolidate Paris's status as a world-class centre for innovation and contribute to the renewal of French higher education.
Sciences Po, a long-standing tradition of innovation
Sciences Po can claim an increasing openness to the hard sciences in addition to its long-standing culture of interdisciplinarity in the social sciences. Projects such as the Médialab, Dime SHS and Archelec are leading the way. Since its establishment, Sciences Po has sought to constantly renew teaching and learning practices, with invention of the "methodology tutorial", regular presentations and debates, etc. Our educational approach already provides many opportunities to put learning into practice in real world conditions (engagement in non-profits, group projects, simulation exercises, the Law Clinic and MOOCs). The library has already begun its transformation into a learning centre. In fact, the Artillerie is the natural extension of Sciences Po's entire educational approach for the 21st century.
Inspirational models for an urban campus
Similar urban campus strategies have been pursued before us by LSE in London, Columbia in New York and Georges Washington University in Washington DC. The fact that student life and research is fully integrated into the heart of the city is a key factor of their attractiveness and international reputation. These schools have also launched major real estate programmes in order to offer students and faculty the best possible working conditions. With our complementary plan to develop student housing, it is a real Oxfordian campus that Sciences Po aspires to shape in the heart of the 6th & 7th arrondissements of Paris.
THE CHALLENGES OF THE ARTILLERIE
Established in the seventeenth century by the Dominicans, the "monastery of the Jacobins" – a reformed branch of the order of St. Dominic – was transformed into the Artillery museum after the 1789 revolution. From then on, the building was occupied by the ministry of defence. Four years of building work will be necessary from 2017 to 2021 to develop the plots with the greatest architectural interest, and to create new spaces that will transform the Artillerie into an innovative campus.
AN EXCEPTIONAL HERITAGE TO DEVELOP AND PROMOTE
The estate has seen four centuries of history since the Dominicans were established here in 1632. Each century has left its mark: the north wing and its monumental staircase in the seventeenth, the cloister and arcades in the eighteenth, the army's exhibition galleries in the nineteenth (the ancestor of the Invalides museum!), and also the research areas where the Lebel and Chassepot rifles were invented.
The coming renovations will aim to reveal the original structure and put all the past "lives" of the building on display, by showcasing the elements of great historical and heritage value. The authenticity of the facades will be preserved, the decor and gallery of the cloister restored, the landscaped areas corresponding to the kitchen garden and the cloister garth recreated, and the canons conserved to recall two centuries of military use.
NEW SPACES TO BE CREATED
The development of the Artillerie also means the creation ex nihilo of new spaces to meet the needs of the twenty-first century educational community: high-tech equipment and services, flexible spaces to encourage innovative teaching and group work, etc.
The works will see the library installed in the basement of the large Gribeauval courtyard, illuminated by windows overlooking the garden, equipped with modular furniture and technologyenabled. This library of the future will stand next to other creations like the fablab. At ground level, a new building will emerge from the Gribeauval courtyard, housing new study, teaching and social spaces. Consultation with builders and architects will be organised in 2017 to choose the project that is to become the symbol of Sciences Po's modernity and openness.
FOUR YEARS OF CONSTRUCTION WORK
2nd - 4th quarter 2016: definitive acquisition from the state.
End of 2016: end of the programming phase and launch of the architectural and building consultation.
2017 - 2021: architectural assessments, drafting and filing of final building permit, building and redevelopment work.
Between September 2020 and 2021: opening of the Artillerie site.
Reims, a model for the Artillerie
Housed in a former Jesuit college from the seventeenth century, the Reims campus has already given Sciences Po experience of estate redevelopment that combines the restoration of a historical site with technical and educational innovations.
A SOUND REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
A RATIONALISED CAMPUS THAT WILL SAVE MONEY
In 2004, Sciences Po undertook to thoroughly streamline its Paris campus. Twenty-eight rental addresses were vacated between 2004 and 2012.
The acquisition of the Hôtel de l'Artillerie will allow a further sixteen rental contracts to be terminated, and completes the process of streamlining Sciences Po's Paris campus to seven locations around its historic centre (see map on page 8). The plan therefore generates significant savings in rent, which will offset the annual cost of the loan after ten years.
Functionally, the operation will allow the entire campus to be reorganised, services to be grouped together and pooled, and economies of scale to be achieved by connecting the new site and the Rene Remond site at 13, rue de l'Université.
BALANCED FUNDING
The total cost of the plan is approximately €200 million. In addition to the acquisition cost (€87 million excluding duties and taxes, or € 93 million including duties and taxes) this amount includes numerous items: works, removals, redevelopment of existing sites, student housing, taxes and charges. The funding is based on loans totalling €160 million, supplemented by a capital contribution and an ambitious fundraising campaign which should raise up to €20 million. The operation will be over 85% self-financed from the very first years by the savings in rent.
