City of Science and Industry, Bavali
attraction
About City of Science and Industry
The Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie ("City of Science and Industry", abbreviated la CSI or simply CSI) is the biggest science museum in Europe. Located in Parc de la Villette in Paris, France, it is one of the three dozen French Cultural Centers of Science, Technology and Industry (CCSTI), promoting science and science culture.
About five million people visit the Cité each year. Attractions include a planetarium, a submarine (the Argonaute), an IMAX theatre (La Géode) and special areas for children and teenagers.
The Cité is classified as a public establishment of an industrial and commercial character, an establishment specialising in the fostering of scientific and technical culture. Created on the initiative of President Giscard d'Estaing, the goal of the Cité is to spread scientific and technical knowledge among the public, particularly for youth, and to promote public interest in science, research and industry.
The most notable features of the "bioclimatic facade" facing the park are Les Serres – three greenhouse spaces each 32 metres high, 32 metres wide and 8 metres deep. The facades of Les Serres were the first structural glass walls to be constructed without framing or supporting fins.
Between 30 May and 1 June 2008, the museum hosted the 3rd International Salon for Peace Initiatives.
History
The building is constructed around the vast steel trusses of an abattoir sales hall on which construction had halted in 1973. The transformation, commissioned on 15 September 1980, was designed by the architect Adrien Fainsilber and the engineering firm Rice Francis Ritchie (RFR Engineers). It was opened on 13 March 1986, inaugurated by François Mitterrand upon the occasion of the encounter of the Giotto space probe with Halley's Comet.