PSA Peugeot Citroen Opens New State-Of-The-Art Design Centre
Published: 9th October 2004
ADN is located on the Group’s site in Vélizy, just outside Paris, and is entirely dedicated to automobile design. The building can accommodate up to 1,100 people, of which 900 will be permanent employees. More than 20 nationalities and the full array of automotive engineering skills are represented to give the greatest possible scope to the engineering and design studies that precede and support the vehicle creation process.
Whilst all of the Group’s styling studios and innovation teams are consolidated under the same roof, the Peugeot and Citroen styling teams work in different areas, promoting healthy competition by allowing for contact yet avoiding indiscriminate mixing of their distinctive styles.
Twenty-seven months after laying the cornerstone, the completed building covers a total surface area of 70,000m2 on three floors. It is equipped with resources for research and design (innovation project teams) and for creation (styling studios), as well as for producing prototypes (milling machines, paint and assembly workshops, etc.).
ADN includes spaces for confidentiality as well as areas to meet with suppliers; a number of terraces so that vehicles can be exposed to sunlight; a 900m2 display room and an auditorium. The facilities also offer styling teams a number of alternative lighting possibilities to meet their varying needs, from direct overhead sunlight through to artificial light.
There is also a 500m2 Virtual Reality Centre equipped with the auto industry’s most advanced digital simulation tools that will shorten the time-to-market and bring down the cost of new product development by reducing the reliance on physical prototypes. This includes:
- The SCALE 1 screen which presents the vehicle’s overall exterior style and architecture.
- The CAVE™ system which, with screens on three walls, floor and ceiling, is used to appraise vehicle interiors by replicating the feelings of volume, space and visibility experienced by a car's occupants. The unit also allows fine-tuning of industrial processes, with simulations of operations that will be carried out at factory workstations.
- HOLOBENCH, a scaled down version of CAVE™ that is used to simulate work in smaller environments such as the engine, allowing engineers to study, for example, the mounting and removal of mechanical assemblies.
