The complex will appear on the outskirts of Orleans, next to the Christian Dior perfume factory (the Christian Dior group is co-owner of LVMH).
The new laboratories will employ 250 researchers, currently divided into different fashion houses and cosmetics lines of the concern (these are Dior, Guerlain, Givenchy, Kenzo and others).
According to the management of LVMH, the head of which is the famous art collector and fan of creativity Tadao Ando Bernard Arnault, the new center should not only be high-tech and functional, but also demonstrate the quality of the architectural project. Otherwise, it would not be consistent with the image of the world's largest manufacturer of luxury goods.
The architects call the future building "a diamond in a casket of greenery." Its glass buildings will be erected on a triangular section with a side of 130 m, in the center of which a garden will be laid out. The research center will be the first laboratory facility in France to meet the highest standards for resource-efficient, energy-active architecture.
The ensemble with an area of 16.5 thousand square meters. m will be heated by using the heat generated by the technical equipment of the laboratories; its walls will be made of two layers of glass panels with an air interlayer in the middle, which will prevent energy losses. Architect Jean-Marie Charpentier admitted that he would like to go even further and install solar panels on the roof of the center, but this would reduce the illumination of the laboratories. At the same time, the outside of the ceilings is covered with a layer of Texlon plastic with a pattern applied on it. It is absolutely transparent, but the rough surface created by it will reduce the glare of the sun's rays on the roof of the building and thereby reduce its heating - and the need for additional cooling of the center's premises.
The modular basis of the complex plan will make it easy to expand it in the future, bringing the number of its employees to 350 people.
The project budget is EUR 29 million. The construction completion date is the end of 2009.
