Jussieu Campus - Controversies and Asbestos

Controversies and Asbestos

The campus is generally decried as an architectural failure. The hollow space under the building wings enables wind to build up its force, and thus the environment on the slab is unfriendly. The regular grid plan may be confusing, since it is sometimes difficult to know where one is located, especially since not all corridors allow through crossing nowadays (laboratories etc. have often chosen to lock their corridor for safety reasons). The campus has become increasingly degraded since its erection, and its older tower stairwells and exteriors are covered in perpetual graffiti—towers renovated since about 2000 are constantly kept in a cleaner state by painting over new graffitis.

The most worrisome particularity of the Jussieu architecture is its extensive use of asbestos as a fire retardant. Asbestos fibers are carcinogenic when inhaled, and as a consequence the use of asbestos in buildings is prohibited in France, but wasn't at the time when the campus was built. The risks are particularly acute for workers who maintain the building (drilling walls etc...). Also, it seems that the fire retardation is not really sufficient, which, coupled with the use of metal for frames, would result in an early collapse in the case of a large fire. An ambitious clean-up program was begun in 1997 after some high-profile protests. The wings are stripped off all equipment, walls etc... to the naked concrete frame, and are then rebuilt in modern materials. Many advocated for the destruction of Jussieu when the asbestos problem was addressed, however, the campus is protected as an architectural type and must be restored to its original condition.

In 1996 Claude Allègre, a well known French politician and scientist, opposed the removal of asbestos from the campus, describing it as harmless and dismissing concerns about it as a form of "psychosis created by leftists". The campus' asbestos is deemed to have killed 22 people and caused serious health problems in 130 others.