en.Wedoany.com Reported - Orange, in partnership with Legendre Immobilier, has officially launched the New Lannion R&D campus project in Lannion, France, with a planned investment of €50 million. The campus will cover 12,000 square meters and accommodate nearly 1,200 employees. Located on the historic site where the French National Telecommunications Research Center (Cnet, Centre national d'études des télécommunications) was founded in 1960, the project is designed by agence Club. It will include a new 7,500-square-meter R+2 building and the renovation of a 1,900-square-meter existing structure, connected by a footbridge. The campus will feature office spaces, innovation zones, an auditorium, laboratories, and a technical wing dedicated to R&D.
Construction began in autumn 2025, with the main structure expected to be completed by September 2026. The overall project is slated for delivery by the end of 2027, with occupancy starting in early 2028. To consolidate this historic site, Lannion-Trégor Communauté, with support from the Brittany Public Land Agency (EPF Bretagne), acquired part of the land and historic buildings, while Legendre acquired the remainder. The campus will also host a training hub led by the urban community, which is still in the planning stages.
In terms of environmental sustainability, the project aims to achieve HQE sustainable building certification (High Performance level) and the BiodiverCity label. The campus will feature approximately 5,000 square meters of photovoltaic shading structures and rooftop solar panels, expected to generate around 1 megawatt of power. Waste heat from IT equipment will meet nearly all heating needs for the new section. Additionally, the project includes a micro-forest, a preserved green courtyard, a rainwater collection basin, and a bioclimatic hall.
This site holds significant historical importance in telecommunications: it was here that Platon—the Lannion prototype of a digital time-division automatic switch (prototype lannionnais d'autocommutateur temporel à organisation numérique)—was born in 1963, revolutionizing telephone communication without the need for operators. Currently, teams at the site are working on mobile and fixed networks, cybersecurity, data, and artificial intelligence. During the demolition of a building for construction, workers discovered a metal tube in the walls containing a parchment scroll from the 1960 foundation ceremony, signed by then-elected officials, national representatives, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Maurice Bokanowski, and Cnet Director Pierre Marzin. This time capsule, buried for nearly 66 years, may inspire the creation of a new one.
