Cité des sciences et de l'industrie

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La Géode (left) and Cité des sciences (right)

The Cité des sciences et de l'industrie (Eng: City of Science and Industry ) dominates the northern part of the Parc de la Villette in the 19th arrondissement of Paris and is a science, technology and industrial museum. Together with the Cité de la musique and the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris , it each forms a corner point in the Parc de la Villette .

The Cité is an " établissement public " - i.e. H. as much as a public body specializing in the communication of scientific and technical culture, under the responsibility of two French ministries - the ministries of culture and research. It serves a wide audience, especially children and young people, in spreading scientific and technical understanding and in this way is intended to arouse citizens' interest in science, research and industry in society and attracts more than five million visitors annually.

There is also the older science museum Palais de la Découverte in Paris, which has been united with the Cité in an urban society since 2009.

central entrance hall

Showrooms

There are numerous showrooms and facilities:

Explora (Levels 1, 2 and 3)

With 30,000 m², it covers around two thirds of the exhibition space. The most important permanent exhibitions, structured according to topics, are: mathematics , optics and light , acoustics , water and sea , biology and biotechnology , energy , transport and automobiles , mineralogy and volcanology , astronomy and space travel .

Each department is the size of its own museum. In the transport department there is no lack of outstanding examples of French engineering , such as the TGV , the driverless VAL of the Métro , a model of the youngest French fighter, the Rafale, or a Formula 1 racing car. A flight simulator of Airbus - cockpit is yet another attraction. In the space department, u. a. the third stage and the engine of the European Ariane 5 rocket are shown. In the optical department you can find out everything from photography to holography .

Deep-sea research submersible Nautile in original size

A walk across the “Green Bridge” at a height of more than 20 m above the entrance hall gives you an impression of biotechnology and genetic engineering . The cultivation of various useful plants is shown in a greenhouse from the 20th century . In the marine department, videos of marine research of living things are shown in the hot vents of submarine volcanoes, which, thanks to the heat and the escaping sulfur, exist without light and oxygen .

In the Odorama game, the sense of smell is subjected to a test.

Temporary exhibitions deal, for example, with the brain , the 200-year history of industrialization in France, the 50th anniversary of the Citroën DS , the importance of water, biometrics or the Roman glassblowing trade .

Médiathèque (level -1)

The science library extends over three floors. It is also divided into three large areas:

  • large public,
  • Childhood and
  • History of science.

At the same time, you will find the interactive facilities that enable you to watch films , documentaries , animations , CD-ROMs, etc. directly . The children's media center and the Les Shadoks cinema are located on level 0 .

The Cité of children (level 0)

Designed for children between the ages of 3 and 12 to visit, the Cité is divided into two rooms: the room for 2 to 7 year olds and the Techno Cité , the room for 5 to 12 year olds.

The planetarium (level 2)

Under a dome with a diameter of 21 meters, the starry sky is projected onto it, the course of which is imitated by 10,000 small telescopes . At the same time, 125 projectors simulate the course of the sun, planets and moon . Together with a corresponding sound system (apart from the lack of weightlessness ) the impression of a space travel is created.

Carrefour numérique (approximately: digital intersection ) (level -1)

This 1200 m² room is made up of an information area that grants access to a series of “Dictatielen” ; a kiosk with access to the Internet; an introductory workshop in computer science ; a studio in which you can work with multimedia ; a digital classroom for students and an agora to participate in events, meetings and debates on digital culture. Here z. B. an event with the Google cards.

Cité of Professions (level -1)

Information place on training courses and occupations ; the Cité der Berufe is available to consultants and also maintains an important body of documentation.

Cité of Health (Level -1)

It is located at the entrance to the large public media library and is an information and consultation room on all health issues .

Others

Technology area
  • The auditorium (level 0) is a conference room for educational programs
  • A convention center (level -1)
  • The aquarium (level -2)
  • The Louis Lumière cinema (level 0)
  • The Jean Bertin room (level 0)
  • The Condorcet room (level 0)
  • A picnic room (level 0)
  • A post office counter (level 0)
  • A boutique selling books and science games (level 0)
  • Restaurants (level -2)

Thanks to infrared technology , wireless headphones can be used to follow an audio guide in 18 languages, which explains to the visitor exactly the part of the exhibition in which they are currently located. Each department has videos . The multitude of didactically structured, interactive experiments invite the visitor to approach the various topics in a playful, researching and creative way.

The museum thrives on its experience, not on exhibits . Greenhouses, in which plants are located according to different climatic zones , connect the interior of the building with the outside area, dominated by water basins that lead into the park.

criticism

While the creativity-promoting concept is praised in most publications, critics such as Norbert Mappes-Niedeck counter that the Cité is a huge temple made of steel and glass, in which the once cheerful, now terrifying, science and technology belief of the 1960s nest.

As an example, he cites a computer learning program in which, under the question “How is a child conceived?”, After the fusion of an egg and a sperm cell in a Petri dish, the selection of a surrogate mother “... depending on origin, age, number of pregnancies and qualifications ... “is described by software.

A model of the core of the Superphénix , the breeder reactor operated by the EDF or the honorary plaque of the “famous families of chemical fibers”, which was financed by the chemical industry , are cited as evidence for the allegation that the museum is an industrial monument.

history

At the Porte de la Villette in Paris there used to be a 40,000 m² slaughterhouse and a cattle market, where around 3000 people found employment. The slaughterhouse and cattle market were relocated to Pantin in 1974 and in 1979 a project was developed to convert the 55 hectare area, which almost extends to the Boulevard Périphérique , in order to revitalize this neglected and run-down district in the 19th arrondissement.

The architect Adrien Fainsilber was commissioned on September 15, 1980 to develop a futuristic science and technology museum made of steel and glass from the construction of a huge, unfinished hall of the slaughterhouse that began in the 1960s. This was inaugurated by President François Mitterrand on March 13, 1986 on the occasion of the encounter between Halley's Comet and the European Giotto space probe . It complemented the already existing Palais de la découverte (Eng .: Palace of Discovery ) in the Grand Palais .

The presidents of the museum in chronological order:

  • The physicist Maurice Lévy 1985
  • Christian Marbach 1987
  • Roger Lesgards 1988
  • Pierre David 1993
  • Gérard Ghéry 1995
  • The mathematician Michel Demazure 1998
  • Jean-François Hébert 2002
  • Claudie Haigneré 2009


See also

Web links

Commons : Cité des sciences et de l'industrie  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 53 '44 "  N , 2 ° 23' 17"  E