The ceremony to lay the first stone for its future laboratories took place on the afternoon of Thursday, June 20, on the vast wooded Orléans-La Source site of BRGM, the Geological and Mining Research Bureau.
Its construction will be completed in mid-2025, it will have cost 20 million euros, part of which is financed by the communities. We are talking about the building which will, tomorrow, house most of the BRGM laboratories, today spread across its vast wooded site at Orléans-La Source. The oldest of which dates from 1965.
Thursday, June 20, took place the ceremony of laying its “first stone”, in fact, the first straws, since it was indeed a boot that was inserted, not without difficulty, in this sample of wall, the mayor d’Orléans, Serge Grouard, and the CEO of BRGM, Catherine Lagneau. After, however, the agents on strike (for their salaries) of the public establishment will have somewhat heckled the ceremony, by applauding for a good ten minutes the brief protest speech at the microphone of one of their own, a trade unionist.
The striking BRGM agents delayed the ceremony a little, applauding for several minutes the speech of one of their own. Photo: David Creff
Eco-friendly…
The fact remains that the future complex of 4,700 square meters, called “Batlab”, will integrate two buildings, since the R+1 laboratory platform of 1,800 square meters will be backed by a two-story office building of almost 1,000 square meters. , with cafeteria.
The construction of the building which will tomorrow house the BRGM laboratories and offices is already well advanced. Photo: David Creff
Designed by the architectural firm R&R-Group A26, Batlab will give pride of place “to biosourced materials, with its wooden frame facades incorporating straw insulation,” explains architect Antoine Roux. Built on a former parking lot to “reduce the artificialization of the soil”, the whole will also be heated by geothermal energy. So “environmentally friendly”.
Its organization will also aim “to promote synergies between research engineers, technicians, doctoral students… and to bring tertiary spaces closer to experimental activities”, Catherine Lagneau is already planning, regarding the building, “which will finally give shape to our dream.
When the building is standing.
Why was a well full of technology installed in the middle of a Beauce field in the small village of Villamblain?
David Creff
