ENSCI - Les Ateliers

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Founded in 1982, ENSCI-Les Ateliers is jointly governed by the Ministries of Culture and Industry. The School offers advanced study, consultancy and research in all aspects of contemporary design practice.
Each year 50 students are selected for integrated master study tracks of 5, 4 or 3 years, depending on previous qualifications and experience. Our degree is recognised at level 1 of the... national register of professional certification.
The School also offers a Textile designer master (DT), a professional master in Design and contemporary technology (CtC) and the Innovation by Design (IdB) programme for non-designers.
Les Ateliers is recognised for its innovative approach to design education, based on diversity of student profiles, individualised programming and project-based learning. Academic study is balanced with professional experience and the study platform allows each student to develop his / her own profile, vision and field of practice.
Students gain experience in applying design intelligence to a range of socio-economic and cultural contexts and are exposed to a constantly evolving range of design fields and projects.
Learning to work in partnership with non-design experts is essential and this experience is extended through “Residences” in research laboratories (for example the CEA - the French government-funded technological research organisation, Grenoble) or joint programming / research with leading management and engineering schools, universities and social science labs.
An industrial partnership programme provides the frame for commissioned project work in one of a dozen (approx.) project studios and postgraduate D Labs, and a wide range of professional internships is available in France and abroad.
Exposure to the thinking and expertise of the multitude of specialist areas which make up design practice today prepares students for interdisciplinary team working and the challenge of complexity.
ENSCI-Les Ateliers is a founding member of the Master of European Design programme (MEDes.) created with 6 other leading institutes in Helsinki (Aalto University), Stockholm (Konstfack), Glasgow (GSA), Cologne (KISD), Milan (Politecnico) and, recently, the University of Aveiro in Portugal. The MEDes. has also set up a joint research platform and close cooperation with non-European partners such as the University of Chiba, Japan (“Friend of MEDes”).
The school joined Icsid in 1985, is part of the DESIS Network (Paris DESIS Lab*, created 2012) and is a Cumulus member school.
Les Ateliers is located in historic premises near the Bastille - once home to the workshops of the decorator Jansen - and is open 24 hours a day all year round. Visit us at 48 rue Saint Sabin, 75011 Paris.
ENSCI is the acronym of “Ecole nationale supérieure de création industrielle”, which we translate as the “French national institute for advanced studies in industrial design”. Within the French education system, ENS in the name signifies that the School is a state run, highly selective institution, mainly providing master and research-level studies.
This nickname represents the space rather than the institution, an 11,000 sqm loft space in central Paris, previously made up of specialist crafts workshops working for Jansen, the decorative arts company. “Les Ateliers” echoes the traditional values of skill exchange and complementarity necessary for project teamwork, in both creative making and creative thinking.
As distinct from existing design programmes in France at the time, Les Ateliers was created as an independent institute. Seeking to broaden the traditional art & design school model, the education system was custom-designed. The objective was to create a platform of learning for what was seen to be an emerging profile of creative professional. It was hoped that broadening vision, experience and skills and developing the capacity to deal with complexity would extend the role of design and stimulate creative thinking within French industry and infrastructure.
The project was a courageous one and well ahead of its time. Initially considered to be an experimental project, Les Ateliers quickly received recognition and acclaim within the international design community. Today the innovative programme structure - based on diversity of student profiles, personalised study pathways, project-based learning and the interplay between creative, academic and professional input - remains fully adapted to the needs of contemporary design education.
Despite the school’s international ambitions, at the time, it was unthinkable to use an English term in the title. “Creation industrielle” has become an open-ended term, which has evolved with changes in the design profession over the past 30 years. The notion of an act of “design” (no verb exists in the French language) could be expressed by “creative project intelligence”.
Initially the term “création industrielle” also saluted the joint commitment of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Industry to the financing and running of the School. It signals the ambition to prepare students for “real” professional life (through industrial partnerships, professional internships etc.) whilst respecting the fine balance between academic and practical (project) experience.
At the creation of the School in 1982 the ambition was to gain recognition as an advanced-level programme within the French education system thus contributing to increased prestige and visibility for the design profession itself, nationally. Students selected for study at ENSCI-Les Ateliers must demonstrate their ability and commitment for long-term advanced studies.
Though no intermediary or Bachelor degree exists, the programme is nonetheless divided into “phases” (2+2+1) which act as indicators of progression throughout each student’s study pathway.
Many of the French Grandes Ecoles have chosen to safeguard the traditional five-year integrated Master track, despite the changes in EU education structures introduced by the Bologna Bachelor-Master-Doctorate (BMD) system.
The French system of higher education is characterised by the distinction made between large universities and small, highly selective “Grandes écoles” (ENS…). In contrast to the university system, entry to these “schools” is via a competitive selection process and often for integrated master studies (5 years). In France these are considered as the élite schools. However, any student wishing to pursue doctoral studies after his / her Grande Ecole master “diplôme” must also be enrolled in a university research lab (“école doctorale”).
Apart from the textile design studies (mentioned below), ENSCI is mainly known for its five-year Master-programme in “creation industrielle”.
The majority of project groups and classes are mixed and little distinction is made between entry year groups. As each student follows an individualised study path (parcours individualisé) the system is constructed around personal tutorials and six-monthly assessment juries, structured within three study phases - Initiation (I), Development (II), Degree (D).
All students are expected to develop a personal design profile, interest or field of work. Care is therefore taken to select students with very different backgrounds, visions and skills. An interdisciplinary student body is a precious resource for stimulating skill and knowledge exchange and preparing the ground for future professional team working.
The Les Ateliers’ study programme strives to reflect the constant evolutions in visions of industry, innovation and design practice and to expose each student to a multitude of project contexts, design, and related fields of knowledge. This implies working with a wide range of French and foreign designers, industry professionals and non-design experts, either within the school or invited for projects, seminars, conferences and juries.
The School has close links with business and industry and students benefit from numerous opportunities to experience real-life professional demands, both in France and abroad. Most project studios run partner projects, for example – CEA (Technological Research), EDF (French electricity), The Pompidou Centre, French Telecom, Hermès, Legrand, Orange, Leroy Merlin, the RATP (Paris public transport), Renault, SFR, Dassault Aviation, and the SNCF (French rail). In addition, several international workshops are programmed each year (Sony, Kenwood Design (Japan), STBY, IDEO etc).
All students are required to gain hands-on internship experience in France and abroad.
Advanced level schools and universities have recently been encouraged by the French government to form consortia and operate as multi-disciplinary academic clusters. ENSCI-Les Ateliers is a founding partner of the prestigious French Research and Higher Education Cluster called the ‘PRES héSam’, acronym meaning “Hautes Etudes Sorbonne Arts Métiers”, an alliance of 13 Parisian higher education institutions. Formally established on December 31, 2010, it represents 55,000 students, 130,000 lifelong training auditors, 2,400 engineering degrees awarded per year (the second largest in France), 4,300 faculty members, teachers and researchers, 6,500 PhD students and 139 research units.
One of the long–term projects has been to create the Michel Serres Centre for Innovation. ENSCI- Les Ateliers has played a central role in the development of this ambitious project.