Inauguration of the first phase of the European Center for Quantum Sciences in Strasbourg

It is on rue de Loess, in the heart of the Alsatian capital, that Spie Batignolles worked for 19 months to create a new building, in place of an old vacant lot, to offer a new research institute. innovative based on quantum sciences, first of its kind on the Franco-German model.

Since the summer of 2022, the Spie Batignolles Construction Régions teams have reinvested the premises, as part of an optional phase, to develop an extension to the first building completed in 2021. This work will last until March 2024.

A project supported by Unistra and the CNRS

It was two years after its delivery that the European Center for Quantum Sciences was officially inaugurated after construction carried out in the midst of a health crisis marked by periods of confinement.

The Cesq (University of Strasbourg and CNRS), supported by the Grand Est Region and the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg, the CESQ has the ambition to encourage innovation in this field (research on the infinitely smaller) by offering a high-quality infrastructure for researchers, working within two theoretical physics groups and two experimental physics groups.

With a surface area of ​​1400 m², the building, construction of which began in 2020, is spread over 3 levels, from the ground floor to the 2nd floor. It offers 32 offices, 3 laboratories, meeting and seminar rooms…

The University of Strasbourg chose to install the CESQ, made of exposed raw concrete, on the Cronenbourg campus, to encourage synergies.

The whole challenge of this project, managed by Spie Batignolles Construction Régions, focused on the requirements for indoor temperature and humidity levels to be respected and maintained on a daily basis to ensure optimal conditions within the framework of the research projects carried out. :

• 24° interior temperature
• A humidity level below 40%

The specifications mentioned a tolerance of only +/- 0.2°C.

To respond to this, the Spie Batignolles Construction Régions teams have brought together within the group companies with recognized expertise in their different areas of intervention: heating, ventilation, chilled water production, air handling units, etc.

The tests carried out, relating to chemical reactions, require perfect homogeneity of the interior temperature and stability of the hygrometry. As a result, the selection of equipment in this area, their installations, their adjustments and their operation have been carefully managed and controlled, much more than in the context of a standard tertiary building.

Where the commissioning of this type of equipment generally takes a few days, that carried out on the CESQ equipment required more than a month to ensure compliance with the requirements defined in the specifications. Once these measurements were validated, Spie Batignolles was then able to deliver the research institute to the University of Strasbourg.

The initial contract included a firm phase relating to the construction of this first building, as well as an optional phase concerning the creation of an extension.

800 m² of additional offices and laboratories

Spie Batignolles Construction Régions was awarded the second operational phase of the work, corresponding to the extension of offices and laboratories over an area of ​​800 m² to accommodate 30 additional researchers.

The extension project is being carried out on the operating structure in which the researchers are working: in the offices, as well as in the experimental laboratories.

This involves creating 30 additional offices and 4 laboratories, while respecting the architecture of the first building. The extension will be attached to the technical equipment already existing in the original building.

Their delivery is scheduled for March 2024.

Identity sheet of the operation

• Client: University of Strasbourg (Unistra)
• Project manager :
  • JB Bethgnies Line Architect
  • BeA Pingat (BE TCE)
  • NECS Sixense (BE vibration expert)
  • tree
• Group of companies: Spie Batignolles (agent) with the MOE team and the HVAC company Antway
• Year of contract signature: 2019
• Delivery of works for the Firm Phase: 2021
• Inauguration of the first tranche: October 16, 2023
• Start of work on the optional phase: summer 2022
• Delivery of work for the optional phase: March 2024