Welcome to the Future: CHU Saint-Ouen Grand Paris Nord
From 2028, 12,000 students will be bustling through the halls of the new CHU Saint-Ouen Grand Paris Nord campus. Now, when I say bustling, I mean tripping over their own shoelaces in the pursuit of knowledge. Who needs a gym when you’ve got 88,000 square meters of medical and dental wisdom at your fingertips?
“Rethinking the relationship between care, training and research”
Now, let’s talk turkey. The French have decided to mix the best of both worlds: academic rigor and medical practice, all in one gloriously ambitious project. With the involvement of the Eiffage Grands Projets group and a swarm of architectural wizards—including PCA Stream and Michel Rémon & Associés—this campus is more than just a place to meet and greet; it’s a place where universities and hospitals are practically shaking hands. First time ever, folks. It’s like a blind date between education and healthcare, and we can only hope it ends with a happy marriage!
In plain English: they’re building one sleek facility that combines the worlds of training and patient care. Because let’s face it, nothing says “we’re serious about medical education” like a place where aspiring doctors can one moment be in a lecture about anatomy and the next be trying to remember everything they learned about the human body while staring into the bewildered eyes of a patient. Talk about pressure!
The Magnificent 1.3 Billion Euro Investment
Guess what? This impressive urban tapestry of learning and healing will set you back a cool 1.3 billion euros. Just to put things into perspective, that’s probably what they’re spending on croissants during the construction period! Seriously, this complex is going to cover a total floor area of 230,000 square meters, boasting all the bells and whistles necessary for medical training.
Students will have at their disposal a conference center, library, and even a university restaurant. Perfect for when you’ve just dissected a frog and need some sustenance – ideally, a nice plate of spaghetti, rather than more anatomy lessons!
Campus 4.0: Because Why Not?
The CHU Saint-Ouen is not just any campus; it’s a “4.0 campus.” This means everything will be interconnected, like a medical version of social media—only instead of cat videos, you’ll be sharing groundbreaking medical research! This hip new environment aims to ensure a smooth transition from ‘lab life’ to ‘real-life’ medical practice.
And what can students expect? Oh you know, no big deal—just simulation platforms for dental procedures, medical training, and nursing, along with technical and imaging prowess. In short, it’s like University Challenge meets ER, and frankly, who wouldn’t want to dive into that cocktail of excitement?
Getting Saint-Ouen Out of the Medical Desert
The mayor of Saint-Ouen, Karim Bouamrane, has ambition brewing like a strong cup of French coffee. He envisions a “100% university and student city.” The aim is clear: transform Saint-Ouen from a “medical desert” into a vibrant hub of care and education. How, you ask? Well, by sprucing up their municipal health facilities into a full-blown hospital before the CHU even opens its doors!
The idea here is to ensure Audon residents have access to quality healthcare without the stress of an average doctor’s waiting room that feels like a month-long stay at a five-star hotel—minus the luxury, of course.
So strap in, folks! We’re heading into the future of medical education, and it looks like health care is going to get a whole lot more interesting. Let’s just hope that when the doors open, students remember to bring their brains along with their textbooks!
Keep an eye on Saint-Ouen; it’s about to get a major upgrade. And if they happen to run out of croissants during this process? Well, havoc will ensue!
From 2028, the new campus of CHU Saint-Ouen Grand Paris Nord is set to welcome approximately 12,000 students, marking a significant development in the region’s educational landscape. This milestone comes in light of the contract awarded for constructing the university center on October 21, which Paris Cité University hailed as a pivotal advancement towards this goal.
© Paris Cité University
“Rethinking the relationship between care, training and research“
The consortium selected for this ambitious project includes the prominent Eiffage Grands Projets group serving as the principal agent, alongside acclaimed architectural firms PCA Stream and Michel Rémon & Associés. The technical design will be overseen by the expert teams from Ingerop and WSP, with OASIIS addressing the crucial environmental aspects. “This initiative represents the inaugural construction of a university center and a hospital in tandem, facilitating a profound reimagining of the interplay between care, education, and research while fostering the universalization of specific paramedical training.“, emphasized the institution in a recent press release.
The university segment of the forthcoming CHU will encompass an impressive area of about 88,000 m² within a total project scale of 230,000 m². This facility aims to integrate the teaching and research endeavors of Paris Cité University in vital fields such as medicine, dentistry, and nursing, which are currently dispersed across eight different locations. On the hospital side, the campus will incorporate the critical medical, surgical, and obstetrics services associated with the Beaujon hospitals from Clichy and the Bichat-Claude Bernard hospital located in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. It is essential to note that this monumental complex represents a substantial investment of approximately 1.3 billion euros.
Read: Saint-Ouen Grand Paris Nord university hospital campus: justice removes all obstacles to its construction
Campus 4.0
The architectural vision for this project is characterized as “a 4.0 campus“, fostering a highly connected environment that emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration. This approach aims to ensure a seamless transition from laboratory innovations to practical patient care, effectively translating research breakthroughs into tangible healthcare solutions, as promised by the institution.
Concretely, the campus will feature dedicated research facilities such as mixed research units and transversal platforms, alongside spaces designated for educational purposes. Students will benefit from state-of-the-art simulation platforms for comprehensive training in dentistry, medicine, and nursing disciplines, in addition to advanced technical and imaging facilities. The campus will also include a conference center, a well-resourced library, and an administrative building tailored to enhance student life and logistics. Furthermore, a dedicated center managed by Crous de Paris will offer a university restaurant, sports facilities, and student accommodations.
Getting Saint-Ouen out of the medical desert
The establishment of the CHU Saint-Ouen Grand Paris Nord is highly anticipated by the local community, particularly by Saint-Ouen’s mayor, Karim Bouamrane, who envisions transforming the area into “a 100% university and student city“. To this end, he has formalized a partnership agreement with Paris Cité University. Innovative tutoring and mentoring initiatives are already in the pipeline, aimed at connecting medical students with middle and high school students to inspire future medical vocations.
Another essential objective of this collaboration is to alleviate Saint-Ouen’s medical desert status. In response to this challenge, the city has repurposed its municipal health center into a municipal hospital center (CHM), which currently provides a range of specialist services from APHP professionals while awaiting the future CHU healthcare providers. The goal is to ensure that local residents have access to a comprehensive array of medical services within the area, as nearly one-third of the population (approximately 53,000 residents) is already utilizing consultations at the CHM.