The ceremony of laying the first stone of the Campus Créatif ESMA Montpellier, France, will take place on Thursday 21 March at 19:00, in the presence of local authorities. The event will also feature a performance by the Montpellier Symphony Orchestra and other artistic manifestations. Before the ceremony, the city’s mayor, Philippe Saurel, the director of the ESMA, Karim Khenissi and the architect, Josep Lluís Mateo, will give a press conference to talk about the project.

The ESMA (Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques) is a benchmark institution specialising in artistic and audiovisual subjects (video games, 3D animation, special effects, and graphic, set and interior design) with campuses in France, Canada and, soon, Barcelona.

ESMA’s central office is in Montpellier, where Josep Lluís Mateo is designing the Campus Créatif, a new headquarters to replace the existing building in response to the institution’s new organisational and technological needs.

The building, located on the site of the city’s former barracks (arranged according to the Urban Plan of Adriaan Geuze, West 8), emulates a cité créative, with film sets, sports facilities, restaurants, dwellings, and so on. The project is designed to be integrated into the former military complex as a hard yet subtle building.

Construction work began in July 2018, and completion is scheduled for June 2020.