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 recognized at level 1 of the national register of professional certification.
Students gain experience in applying design intelligence to a range of socio-economic and cultural contexts and are exposed to a continually evolving range of design fields and projects.
An industrial partnership program provides the frame for commissioned project work in one of a dozen (approx.) project studios and postgraduate D Labs. A wide range of professional internships is available in France and abroad.
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 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 programs in France, 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 professionals. 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 the French industry and infrastructure.
The project was a courageous one and well ahead of its time. Initially considered an experimental project, Les Ateliers quickly received recognition and acclaim within the international design community. Today, the innovative program structure - based on diversity of student profiles, personalized study pathways, project-based learning, and the interplay between creative, academic, and professional input - remains fully adapted to contemporary design education's needs.
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."
It signals the ambition to prepare students for "real" professional life (through industrial partnerships, professional internships, etc.) while respecting the delicate 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 program 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 to long-term advanced studies.
Though no intermediary or Bachelor's degree exists, the program is divided into "phases" (2+2+1), which act as indicators of progression throughout each student's study pathway.
Many 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.
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 doctoral").
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 individualized 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. 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). 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 Ph.D. 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.
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