World Fair 2025 - Candidature de France - Webflow Ecommerce Website Template

World Fair 2025 / cultural _ candidature

[Summary]

Eight Grand Paris sites as one exhibition / a polycentric city becoming public learning environment.

[Team]

Sensual City Studio

[Temporal Arc]

Immediate (multicultural encounter) · Chronic (metropolitan transformation across decades)

[Direction of Effect]

ENCOUNTER (multicultural activation) · ACTIVATE (metropolitan transformation) · ENCODE (Grand Paris identity)

[Neural Tags]

B5 = Multisensory nature · W3 = Urban waterfront at scale · S1 = Social contact activation · S2 = Collective memory + spatial identity

[Biological System]

Autonomic regulation · Molecular signalling (oxytocin) · Neuroplasticity · Allostasis

[Description]

REFLECTION ON THE THEME 'AT THE HEART OF TERRITORIES, THAT OF PEOPLE OPENS UP' The very formulation of the theme underlines the dialectic between the term 'territories' in the plural, which refers to spaces that are appropriated, physically delimited and culturally identified, and the expression 'people', a metaphor for humanity: citizens of a connected and shared world. This interpretation justifies the two central entities envisaged for Expo France 2025: on one side, the Global Village, in the image of those territories incarnated by peoples; on the other, the Sphere, a 'connected object'. Each country becomes a co-constructor, a co-contributor. The notion of connection in the project translates the idea of coming together: a product, a service, a particular technology around common themes - in real connection with the Sphere, a true living world atlas.The Candidature de France for World Fair 2025 is the official French government bid for Expo 2025, developed by Sensual City Studio and Jacques Ferrier Architectures. The proposal is structured around two central entities: the Global Village, embodying the diversity of the world's territories and peoples, and the Sphere, a connected object linking all participants. Eight sites across Grand Paris - from the capital's centre to Aulnay-sous-Bois - constitute the exhibition as a metropolitan experience rather than a single venue. Published: Le Monde, 21 October 2015. Official candidature of France. Dubai won the 2021 edition. BfNA reading: this project is understood as a case study in memory, attention, cultural transmission, identity and sensory experience. It extends beyond architectural production into environmental intelligence / how design decisions can support human adaptation, social responsibility, ecological performance and future evidence-based practice.

[Key Figures]

Typology: cultural _ candidature · 2015-2016 · Global Village: ~50 ha · 350,000 visitors/day estimated · Polycentric: main site Saclay + satellite Aulnay-sous-Bois · France's official candidature (Dubai won, 2021 edition) · Published: Le Monde (21.10.2015)

[Neural Analysis]

CROWD SYNCHRONY: Expo architecture works through novelty, rhythm and collective identification, recruiting reward and social bonding circuits at territorial scale.

MULTICULTURAL NEURAL SCIENCE [B5][W3]: World's Fair as in vivo laboratory for the effects of multicultural environments on the brain. fMRI and EEG studies (Nichols 2014, meta-review) show high-quality shared environments reduce neural circuits linked to stress and activate beauty/pleasure regions [W3]. Gaekwad et al. (2023) meta-analysis: exposure to culturally stimulating natural-feeling environments reduces physiological stress markers [B5]. COGNITIVE DIVERSITY: Immersion in cultural diversity stimulates neuroplasticity (Bialystok et al., 2012, Trends Cogn. Sci.) and empathy circuits (mirror neurons activated by unfamiliar cultural performances). SOCIAL CONTACT [S1]: Shared experience of cultural discovery is among the highest positive-affect activities (MacKerron & Mourato, 2013). MULTICULTURAL STIMULATION & PREFRONTAL ENRICHMENT: Maguire et al. (2000, PNAS): spatial complexity literally grows the brain. Diverse cultural encounters reduce in-group bias and activate empathy networks (Van Bavel & Cunningham, 2012, Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci.). Polycentric Grand Paris: 8 sites across the metropolis democratise access. BfNA neural-sciences lens: the relevant question is not only how the project looks, but how it conditions memory, attention, cultural transmission, identity and sensory experience over time, across different bodies, neurotypes and social realities.

[Social Impact]

SOCIAL: The project stages a national narrative through public encounter, education and cultural display.

[ROI Sustainability]

ROI: Temporary event architecture creates value through attention, tourism, identity and media circulation.

ROI: World's Fair generates €5-10 billion GDP impact (Montreal 1967, Osaka 1970 models). Polycentric model ensures infrastructure legacy across Grand Paris. SUSTAINABILITY: Theme 'Au cœur des territoires': sustainability as core programmatic content. Inspired by Elisée Reclus (cited by Le Monde). WORLD'S FAIR LEGACY ECONOMICS: Montreal 1967: Expo 67 generated $1.4B GDP and left Parc Jean-Drapeau as permanent legacy. Even as unrealised candidature: the urban vision influenced Grand Paris planning at ministerial level. ESG / investment lens: the value of this project is not limited to carbon or certification. It includes cultural value, public engagement and long-term knowledge capital, producing evidence that can inform investors, public actors, operators and future environmental standards.

[Applied R&D Lens]

Analyse crowd routes, attention peaks and emotional landmarks across the candidature narrative.

The World Fair is the largest-scale multicultural encounter in human social life. BfNA's Applied R&D would deploy the full social neural science measurement framework across the Grand Paris sites - tracking oxytocin, cortisol, and self-reported adaptive functioning across the visitor population, correlated with programme type, cultural encounter frequency, and spatial density. The polycentric model (8 sites across Grand Paris) provides a natural comparison experiment: measuring the neural impact of metropolitan distribution versus single-site concentration. Even unrealised, the candidature establishes the measurement framework for the next iteration.Future data layer: deployed through BfNA, the project could become a longitudinal dataset linking environmental conditions, behavioural patterns, social outcomes and ecological performance / transforming built space into knowledge for future design.

Citations:

Sources: Maguire et al. (2000) PNAS hippocampus spatial · Van Bavel & Cunningham (2012) Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. · ICOMOS World Heritage Impact Assessment methodology · Montreal Expo 67 legacy economic report. · Crowd neuroscience; environmental psychology; Expo France project sources.

Project Credits: Sensual City Studio + Jacques Ferrier Architectures; Team: Sensual City Studio.Laura Role: Laura Ulloa - Project Leader / lead responsibility where documented in CV, office records or project archive.Image Credits: © Sensual City Studio + Jacques Ferrier Architectures and/or respective photographers/visualisation studios.Source: http://search.sensual-city.com/expo-france/?posts_per_page=10&pagination=1 / https://www.sensualcitystudio.com.Project Credits & Copyright Notice: Every effort has been made to identify and acknowledge architects, consultants, collaborators, photographers, visualisation studios and other contributors associated with each project. Project descriptions have been rewritten and curated by Bureau for Neural Architecture (BfNA). Architectural works, photographs, renderings, drawings, trademarks and visual material remain the property of their respective authors, studios, photographers, visualisation teams and rights holders. Contributors are credited wherever information is available. Rights remain with their respective authors and rights holders.