Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie

XXHL: Giga Tours et Mega Ponts

2020
Building the Impossible
World’s tallest towers and longest bridges told through a journey of engineering.

At the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris, XXHL, Giga Tours et Méga Ponts opens up the world of architectural superlatives from record-breaking towers to mega bridges and extreme materials. The exhibition turns the question “how is this even possible?” into a concrete, hands-on exploration.

Tamschick Media + Space, as lead agency and general contractor for Universcience, developed the scenography and narrative design that translate complex engineering into an engaging exhibition for all ages.

Interactive blue digital floor display in modern building with visitors exploring illuminated architectural space.
Higher, longer, lighter, stronger

XXHL, Giga Tours et Méga Ponts is structured as a journey through contemporary engineering challenges: higher, longer, lighter, stronger. Large-format projections and staged models show how construction methods evolved from stone and steel to advanced composites and hybrid systems.

Interactive setups invite visitors to influence balance, load, and stability. By adjusting parameters, they see structures deform, fail, or hold. Analog experiments with materials sit next to digital simulations, creating a dialogue between hand and screen.

TMS designed a narrative that moves fluidly between physical exhibits, mapped projections, and responsive media, so that each element adds a different layer of understanding to the same core questions: what carries weight, and how far can we go.

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Feeling what carries weight

Visitors step into panoramic visual environments, stand among large models, and test structural principles directly. They compare before-and-after simulations of towers and bridges, observing how design choices affect performance under wind, traffic, and time.

Throughout the exhibition, play and insight are tightly linked. Children experience cause and effect by interacting with simple setups; older visitors recognize the underlying mechanics and engineering stories. The result is a visit where record-breaking architecture feels tangible and visual, rather than abstract.

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Extreme engineering - uncomplicated

The museum wanted to explain the physics, design, and risk behind monumental structures without losing visitors in formulas and jargon. The exhibition had to address children, students, and professionals at the same time, and present global case studies in a way that felt accessible, playful, and precise.

The task was to turn highly technical content into a sequence of spaces where visitors could intuitively grasp forces, materials, and design strategies by seeing and trying them, rather than only reading about them.

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The exhibition raises public awareness of the technical prowess and know-how developed by engineers, architects and builders. XXHL, Giga Tours et Méga Ponts shows how science centers can handle highly specialized topics without losing accessibility.

Project Highlights

  • Lead agency and general contractor for Universcience, from concept through implementation
  • Continuous exhibition route combining projected scenarios, interactive media, and material experiments
  • Simulation-based exhibits that visualize load, stress, and deformation in real time as visitors interact
  • Multilingual media and graphic system tailored to general audiences and school groups

Facts & Figures

Client:
Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie – Universcience
Location:
Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie
Paris
France
Type:
Temporary exhibition on large-scale architecture and engineering
Area:
1200 m²
Audience
Diverse visitors from children, students, professionals to tourists
On View:
No
TMS Scope:
Lead contractor for scenography, exhibition design, project management, concept, graphic design, media design and production, interactive programming, sound design, lighting design, 3D model making.
Project Partners:

Media technology and implementation: Mvision 

Prototyping: Borodesign 

Exhibition construction and lighting: Decoral / Etna Lumières 

Model making: Werk5 GmbH and TMS

Image Credits: Arnaud Robin / EPPDCSI 

Awards

ADC Silver Award