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« Paris ville Free » : une enquête architecturale de Soline Nivet

This seminar session will welcome Soline Nivet, who will present her book "Paris ville Free" taken from a survey on the operator's presence in Parisian buildings in order to understand its political motivations and social effects.

Event, Research Seminar

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salle Goguel, 56 rue des saint pères, 75007 Paris

Abstract

In two decades, digital services and products have become part of our daily lives, connecting our homes and changing our cities, giving companies that develop them a strategic role. In Paris, internet service provider and telephone operator Free has become a key player by rolling out its own network of technical infrastructure and high-profile architectural programmes.

For her book Paris ville Free (369 éditions, 2025), researcher and architect Soline Nivet visited a series of locations developed by the group: fibre optic connection points, 5G relay antennas, data centres, coding schools, housing, offices and incubators. She studied and mapped these concrete architectures of the digital economy, in their forms and functions, from the most discreet to the most visible.

Drawing on autobiographical accounts, field observations, theoretical analyses, technical drawings, plans and archive images, this architectural survey describes how Free's entrepreneurial vision and technological promises have shaped recent developments in a city that dreams of becoming the world capital of innovation and the start-up nation.

Biography

Soline Nivet is an architect, author, professor and researcher at the École nationale supérieure d’architecture Paris-Malaquais – PSL. She conducts original, cross-disciplinary work in the field of architecture, combining theory and practice, research and documentation, history and current events. This book is based on her HDR thesis.

Practical information

This seminar will be held in person and in French, on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM, in Room Goguel, 56 rue des Saints-Pères, 75007 Paris.

Registration is mandatory via this link.