Image credit: CERN.
CERN has begun major work to create a new visitor space called Esplanade des Particules, to welcome the ever-growing numbers of visitors to the laboratory each year. The project, undertaken in conjunction with the Etat de Genève, will integrate the laboratory better into the local urban landscape, making it more open and easily accessible, with work to last until summer 2018.
A competition was launched in 2011 to showcase the public entrance to CERN. Landscape-architects Studio Paolo Bürgi won with a design for a large space dedicated to pedestrians that connects CERN’s reception to the Globe of Science and Innovation. The Esplanade des Particules will see the current “Flags Car Park” replaced by a blue pedestrianised area in which the flags of CERN Member States will cross the main road to the laboratory.
