The Jardin des Particules, the crèche and nursery school run by the Staff Association, will welcome children back after the summer break in a brand-new building. Located a stone’s throw from the CERN Reception, the building has a surface area of 1336 m2 spread over two floors: the crèche, for children from 4 months to 4 years old, is on the ground floor, and the school, for older children up to 6 years old, is on the first floor. Each floor has a kitchen and a refectory. Children will be able to spend their break times playing in a playground in front of the school.
“The building was designed to be highly energy efficient,” says Pierre Cardon, the leader of the project, which was carried out by the SMB department. “Triple glazing, a reversible heat pump, dual-flow ventilation, solar panels ... the new Jardin des Particules combines comfort with energy savings.”
The work, which began in January, is now almost complete, just in time for the start of the school year on 25 August.
The former Jardin des Particules building will be demolished in the coming weeks in preparation for work on the Science Gateway, which will begin this autumn. “We had to move both the school and the CERN Mobility Centre (which was located in the Globe car park) to make way for the future Science Gateway,” says Frédéric Magnin, who is in charge of the construction work for the latter project. The new Mobility Centre, which is also currently under construction, will open at the end of September in a dedicated building near Entrance A on the Meyrin site (Route Bohr).
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There are still places available at the Jardin des particules for the new school year! For more information, go to: http://nurseryschool.web.cern.ch/en.