Toulouse: the turbulent history of Sciences Po which applied its new premises to the Manufacture des tabacs
Inauguration, Thursday, November 24, in the presence of the president of the Occitanie regional council and the president of the Toulouse 1 Capitole university, of the new premises of Sciences Po Toulouse at the Manufacture des tabacs.
For the Institute of Political Studies of Toulouse (Sciences Po), which welcomes 1,600 students, it is a page that turns. “A historic move”, recalled the director of Sciences Po Eric Darras, in a welcome speech for the inauguration of the new premises, Thursday, November 24, not devoid of lyricism.
The many guests quickly understood that the Institute had been waiting for this moment for a long time. “Farewell to the teacher’s room the size of a telephone booth”, quipped the director in reference to the old cramped and dilapidated premises: “And thank you for coming to extract us from the Dug Wells…”
4,300 m2 of floor space
Established since 1958 in a building on rue des Puits-Creusés, opposite Toulouse 1 Capitole University, which owns it, Sciences Po has gained space by putting its suitcases in buildings B and D of the Manufacture des tabacs, completely renovated by the architectural firm AMM.
That is 4,300 square meters of floor space – compared to 2,900 m2 in the old premises – has evolved into classrooms, staff room, a 240-seat amphitheater, a Learning center, a new open space of 292m² which includes tables for study, a periodical area which communicates with two offices for the staff, a library of 400 m2…
Students will now take their classes there from January and September. Entrusted to the Toulouse firm AMM, this rehabilitation “aimed to rethink the spaces, while preserving the architectural codes of the Manufacture”.
“Keep the spirit of the place”
The former cigarette and tobacco powder factory, active from 1888 to 1987, employed up to 2,000 workers in Toulouse. The industrial site was transferred to Toulouse 1 Capitole University a few years later, as part of the “University 2000” plan. Its facades and roofs are classified as Historic Monuments.
“Keeping the spirit of the place meant keeping the brick and the metal,” says Benoît Martres, manager of AMM. The Manufacture is an architecturally remarkable building. During the first visit, our eyes were all wide open. We are happy to have had this call for tenders. »
For all the small academic world, “it’s the end of a long river not always calm”, recalled the president of the regional council Carole Delga about the various projects which aborted.
Rehabilitation budget: 5.3 million euros
The rehabilitation of the buildings was carried out thanks to partnership funding from the Occitanie Region (2,012 million euros) and the State (688,000 euros), as part of the State-Region plan contract, as well as by Sciences Po Toulouse (2.641 million euros) or 49% of the overall cost of 5.3 million euros.
“We must add the equipment financed by the establishment to the tune of 1.4 million euros, in particular all the furniture, technical and audiovisual equipment”, assures the Institute of Political Studies which, since 2018, has hosted the Toulouse branch of the Bernard Maris Unesco Chair “Economics and Societies” in tribute to the Toulouse economist assassinated during the attacks against Charlie Hebdo in 2015.
The building on rue des Puits Creusés will be “destroyed and rebuilt”
The historic building of Sciences Po Toulouse, rue des Puits Creusés, opposite the Toulouse 1 Capitole University, is doomed to destruction and reconstruction, as UT1 president Hugues Kenfack said yesterday. “We want to keep the area, car on a square need of surface and meters for teaching, lecture halls, classrooms, and offices of teacher-researchers. We are going to make architects work, we are moving a priori towards the destruction and reconstruction of the building. One must obtain the authorization of the architect of the buildings of France. Today, it is a building which has no thermal insulation, summer or winter, and which is dilapidated. It cannot always be exploited to the full without the approval of the safety commission”, explains Frédéric Faisy, director general of services at UT1. First phase of the project: 2025.
