Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) has shared photos following the inauguration of its new CERN Science Gateway project in Geneva, Switzerland.

The project for clients at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (or CERN) was realized in collaboration with the local studio Brodbeck Roulet Architectes Associés and offers the agency room for an expanded education and outreach program capable of handling between 300,000 and 500,000 visitors annually.

The project’s design is inspired by the tubing integral to CERN’s famed Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator and houses two new laboratories, three small exhibition areas, a 900-seat auditorium, shop, and restaurant in a footprint totaling just over 75,000 square feet. A bridge suspended 20 feet above the ground connects the five separate spaces. RPBW says it also establishes a central metaphor as the “link between science and society.”

More than 400 trees were planted in order to affect a “living forest” surrounding the project. Another 43,055-square-foot solar panel array was included for the building’s energy needs. The project is said to have a net-zero carbon footprint across its entire operation. 

Speaking at this week’s inauguration, Piano said: “This will be a place where people meet: kids, students, adults, teachers and scientists, everybody attracted by the exploration of the Universe, from the infinitely vast to the infinitely small. It is a bridge, in both a metaphorical and a real sense. This building is fed by the energy of the Sun, landed in the middle of a newly grown forest.”

Financing for the project was done almost entirely through private donations, including from the Stellantis Foundation. Other donors included Rolex and the LEGO Foundation. The overall cost was close to 100 million Swiss francs, or about $111 million USD. Elsewhere in Europe, Piano is working on the design of a new $750 million trio of hospital complexes in Greece for the end of 2025.