After narrowly avoiding demolition last year, the building in which Marie Skłodowska-Curie and her colleagues prepared and stored radioactive material in Paris, France, may now end up ‘encased’ in a modern building under new plans.
The Pavillon des Sources is one of three buildings that made up the Institut du Radium, which has since merged with the Curie Foundation to form the Curie Institute – the organisation with responsibility for managing the site.
In early 2024, plans to demolish the Pavillon were strongly opposed by defenders of Parisian heritage. It was then announced that the Pavillon would be dismantled, decontaminated and reconstructed ‘stone by stone’ at a location a ‘few dozen metres’ away and a new building, constructed in its place.
But it was later announced by the Curie Institute that the Pavillon des Sources would remain in its current location and instead be integrated into a new building dedicated to research called ‘Marie Curie – Claudius Regaud’.
However, according to The Times, the building now faces the threat of being ‘irreversibly adulterated’ as plans have been drawn up that aim to ‘encapsulate’ the Pavillon des Sources to create a five-story building to house a cancer research centre.
Last month, a heritage group, SOS Paris, along with many local residents filed an appeal against the expansion project, saying it was ‘detrimental’ to the memory of Marie Curie. The organisation also said that the ‘oversized’ project ‘jeopardises’ the architectural integrity of the building and is urging the Curie Institute to choose a new space to house the work of its researchers.
‘Who could have imagined that this exceptional historic, scientific and memorial heritage … linked to Marie Curie, the greatest French female icon in the world with Joan of Arc, would be threatened by her own [institute]?’ SOS Paris said.
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