Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Cité des sciences et de l'industrie (CSI) is a project initiated by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing to promote scientific and technical culture among the general public, especially young people. It occupies the site of the former slaughterhouses of the Villette, abandoned in 1974, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. The rehabilitation project, entrusted to architect Adrien Fainsilber in 1980, partially retains the reinforced concrete structure of the slaughterhouses to build this new cultural and educational space.

Inaugurated on 13 March 1986 by François Mitterrand, the Cité des Sciences is part of a striking scientific context: the meeting between the Giotto probe and Halley's comet. With the status of a public industrial and commercial establishment (EPIC) in 1985, it completes the Discovery Palace and is under the supervision of the Minister of Research. In 2009, it merged with the Discovery Palace to form Universality, still under EPIC status.

The site houses permanent exhibitions (mathematics, space, robotics, climate) and temporary exhibitions, a scientific library, a planetarium, as well as spaces dedicated to children (Children's City) and digital (Digital Carrefour). The fourth row of slaughterhouses, unused until 2016, is now home to the Vill The metal structure of the roof and the roof was made by Baudin-Châteauneuf and Viry companies.

The Cité des Sciences is a key player in scientific mediation in France, with more than 2 million annual visitors. Its budget in 2008 was based on state subsidies (€91.9 million) and own resources (€27.6 million), from ticketing, concessions and partnerships. It is served by metro lines 5 and 7, as well as by tram T3b.

Her visual identity has evolved since 1986: first marked by an illuminated red square (created by Pierre Bernard of the Grapus group), she adopted in 2017 a contemporary logotype designed by Michael Levin. The Cité is part of a larger cultural complex, the Parc de la Villette, alongside the Philharmonie de Paris and the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique.

External links