Four years ago, the French Pavilion at the Dubai World Expo was presented as an architectural gem.
The structure then had to be reassembled in Toulouse, but today only a pile of scrap metal remains.
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Twenty meters high and five thousand square meters which made France shine four years ago, during the Universal Exhibition in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). The French pavilion was a very ambitious project, worth 36 million euros. With one particularity: it had to be dismantled and then transported to France. The objective? Expand the National Center for Space Studies (CNES), in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne). But the latter ultimately became… a simple pile of scrap metal, left abandoned, as revealed a few days ago by The chained Duck. What happened ?
Jean-Luc Pérez is the architect of this building. The professional considers it as the project of his life. “He had the ability to produce electricity himself“, recalls the latter in the 20H report on TF1 to be found at the top of this article. According to him, the problem comes from the dismantling of the building: beams would have been sectioned, cut with a blowtorch, to be able to fit into the transporters’ containers. “This is not serious“, deplores Jean-Luc Pérez, with a serious expression.
Our reporters contacted a member of the team who worked on the project, but wishes to remain anonymous. He accuses the French company of the Universal Exhibition, responsible for supervising the dismantling. “All the on-site checks that had to be done to see if the dismantling was happening correctly were not done…“, regrets this witness. Contacted, the company in question assures that it has noted some shortcomings on certain parts. Result: impossible to reassemble the building.
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CNES, which had spent 2.5 million euros in the operation, must abandon the project. “It’s your money, it’s mine, ultimately CNES is liable for this public moneyestimates Julien Anxionnat, CFDT union delegate at CNES. We must use this public money wisely, this is absolutely not acceptable. CNES is the victim of bad decisions that may have been made.“The hundreds of tons of scrap metal were still resold for the sum of 269,700 euros. CNES ensures that parts in good condition, such as photovoltaic panels, can still be reused.
