From Weapons Manufacturing to Cité du design

Abstract

Since 2009 Cité du design and the “Higher School of Art and Design” have been located on the more than spacious site of a former weapons factory. This industrial wasteland is characteristic of the former mining and industrial city of Saint-Etienne and the abandoned factories are an element of the urban structure near the city center. Therefore, the opportunity presented itself to house the Higher School with its workshops and teaching rooms here in the old buildings. In front of them a new building was constructed which accommodates exhibition spaces, lecture rooms, a shop, a library, a design material archive and a restaurant. The design concept of the building is based on the pattern of a circuit board, which is equipped with different utility elements and can be used in versatile and variable ways. The long drawn-out low-rise building received a wall and roof covering of 14,000 triangular panels, which were made out of 10 different materials. A delicate viewing tower is adjacent to the building and represents a striking landmark in the historical townscape of the industrial city, which now wants to market itself more and more as a city of design.