La Cité des Sciences et de l’industrie, Parc de la Villette Paris

Adrien Fainsilber and Peter Rice designed the City of Science and Industry at the Parc de la Villette in Paris. It was converted from a sales hall to the museum in 1986. Bernard Tschumi designed the park on the site of a slaughterhouse, with a grid of red pavilions and events throughout the vast site. This is the largest science museum in Europe, with millions of yearly visitors.

The La Géode dome is 36m tall and made of 6,433 reflective steel triangles. It was designed by Adrien Fainsilber and Gérard Chamayou in 1985. It contains a 1,000m sq IMAX theatre screen. It is accessed from the second floor of the museum.

A sunken moat surrounds the museum. Several industrial-looking bridges traverse the water to enter the imposing building. Bare steel structure members and soaring walls of masonry open up to a wide interior space. The oversized structure members continue throughout the interactive spaces. Daylighting is carefully considered, with skylights and tall glazed facades.

The ground floor Cité des Enfants provides interactive exhibits and activities for children, including video games.

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