Saint-Etienne could have been France's first ever European football champions. Glory be to the vanquished: this legendary defeat has played no small part in the enduring aura of the city and its Greens, magnificent losers for a whole generation of Frenchmen not yet accustomed to the taste of victory. But the city of Liège is not just a romantic representative of the Fédération Française de la Lose. Far from it. Driven by the Industrial Revolution, it has seen so much more, major firsts.
The first railway line in continental Europe in 1827, the first sewing machine in history in 1830, then later the first velocipede produced in France, the first sales catalogue extolling the virtues of Manufrance guns and bicycles: a sense of innovation runs through its veins. It's a creative DNA that, time and again, has led the city to become the first - and only - French city to join the network of Unesco creative cities of design in 2010. A select club of around thirty of the world's major cities, where 'Sainté' rubs shoulders with Berlin, Dubai, Cape Town, Montreal, Beijing and Seoul. Nothing less, but nothing that will come as a surprise to business travellers. As soon as you step off the TGV at Saint-Etienne Châteaucreux station, you can see this contemporary shift, symbolised by the vermilion-red buildings with their angular silhouettes on the Poste-Weiss block and the street furniture created by inventive young designers as part of the "Bancs d'essai" programme.
With more than 400,000 inhabitants in 53 municipalities, including more than 170,000 within the city walls, France's eleventh largest metropolis by population holds a special place in the country's industrial power. This key role is based on the richness of its subsoil and the art of knowing how to exploit it, from the engineers trained for two centuries at the Ecole des Mines to the graduates of the Ecole Supérieure d'Art et Design de Saint-Étienne (ESADSE). The heir to a long tradition of expertise in industrial design, dating back to the design of weapons, bicycles and other objects manufactured in the city at the time. A metropolis of minds and bodies, with a working-class soul forged by all those miners and "manuchards" who devoted their lives to the expansion of their beloved city.
These " Golden hands "could no longer still working "As Bernard Lavilliers, a former "Manu" employee like his father, once sang. Gone are the bottomless pits or the production lines: on the rubble of its emblematic sites - the Couriot well inactive since 1973, Manufrance closed in 1980, the end of the line for the Manufacture d'Armes in 2000 - the city is rewriting its history. a new story. The former Manufrance head office has been partly transformed into a conference centre - the other used to house the offices of the Caisse d'Epargne - while one of the administrative buildings, La Verrière, has been converted to host gala events.
The former Saint-Etienne weapons factory is being reinvented as the Cité du Design, a vast project launched by the town council in 2005. Even before its inauguration in 2009, it was on this former industrial and military site that a key edition of the Design biennialThis is the fifth year for this event, which has been promoting Saint-Etienne's excellence all over the world (see box).
Design as a new weapon
Inaugurated on the occasion of this pioneering event, the observation tower is still there - it can be used for cocktail parties for up to 40 people - and from its platform perched 31 m above the ground, it looks out over the whole of the city. a creative district still in the making. Covering more than 70,000 m², the former industrial wasteland is home to the ESADSE campus and the Jean Monnet University Knowledge Centre for Innovation, the Grande Usine Créative for innovative companies, a media centre, a coworking space, a crèche and a primary school. A restaurant, the Fabuleuse Cantine, is also in keeping with the spirit of the place, using unsold organic and local produce to offer inventive cuisine.
Alongside the historic buildings converted to these different uses, another stands out for its contemporary aesthetics designed by architects Finn Geipel and Giulia Andi, from the German agency LIN: the Platine. Taking its name from the part that provides the percussion on the ball's starter, this rectangular parallelepiped, covered with a 'skin' of thousands of panels, either photovoltaic or designed to provide light or ventilation, weaves a link that is both physical and symbolic between the present and the past.
Located at the entrance to the site, between the Place d'Armes from the time of the kings and this forward-looking district, the Platine stretches for almost 200 metres and houses both a media library and a material library for students and teachers. meeting places which are in full swing at conferences organised around the biennials. Alongside the convention centre and La Verrerie, which are part of the MICE facilities operated by Saint-Etienne Events, it also hosts professional events in the 286-seat auditorium and its three rooms for 20 to 100 participants.
La Platine will soon no longer be the only venue in the district for business events. One of the buildings of the former factory is in the process of being renovated, and from next year it will become the Great Event Hall. The full-length building, which can be divided in two, will be able to host events of all kinds, both public and private, symposia and concerts and, of course, events surrounding the biennial.
The history of the site is not yet complete. Visit Cité du design 2025" project will continue to refurbish buildings still in need of renovation. This key investment, worth more than €60 million, of which Saint-Étienne Métropole is financing nearly €40 million, will open up new prospects. The rebirth of this industrial site, beyond the 150 start-ups and 2,000 students already present, has not yet transformed it into a place to live.
To extend the "biennial" effect throughout the year, the district's cultural offering is now set to take on a new dimension. Initially, next autumn, the Cabane du design, where children can take part in workshops to put themselves in the shoes of a designer, will reopen its doors with a redesigned formula. But the heart of the project is set for June 2026. In addition to the unveiling of the Grande Halle Événementielle, the district will see the opening of the National Design Gallery.
Life in the City
" Many museums in France have collections, but don't always have the opportunity to show them off to their best advantage.explains Matthieu Mas, director of communications at the Cité du design. Saint-Etienne legitimately volunteered to welcome them to a new venue ". Through annual exhibitions, this national gallery will bring together design objects from the Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP), the Centre Pompidou, the FRAC des Hauts-de-Seine and the Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux. And, of course, the MAMC+, Saint-Etienne's museum of modern and contemporary art, which boasts one of the world's largest collections of design objects.
At the same time, the site, originally cold and mineral, will be going green with 18 hectares of planted areas. Following on from the Bancs d'essai programme, in which street furniture designed for biennial events leaves a lasting mark on the city, the Cité du design will also be the place to discover new ideas. showroom for local expertise with a range of furniture designed for the area.
Then, in a second phase, by 2028, it will be leisure activities which will be enhanced by a new restaurant and concept store. " A beautiful project spread over three floors with a bakery, a bistro and a more gastronomic restaurant, all within easy reach.says Domna Kossyfidou, Design Communications Project Manager at Saint-Etienne Métropole. The aim is to have a lively central courtyard, where you can enjoy a drink on the terrace, with a programme of music and perhaps an open-air cinema. ".
To complete the picture, an 80-room hotel - whose concept has yet to be unveiled - will be based in the Horloge building. A range of accommodation will come full circle, giving business tourists the chance to enjoy a complete experience. A seminar at the Platine or a conference in the event hall, an evening visit to the Galerie nationale du design, dinner and an overnight stay in the hotel: a unity of place, time and action that revisits its classics in a contemporary way.
