PCA Creative Leadership Class Collaborates with Le 6B for Paris Galaxies Project

Students in Raphaële Bidault-Waddington’s Creative Leadership class recently participated in a workshop at Le 6B, one of the most experimental creative hubs in Paris’s artistic network. The event marks a new chapter in PCA’s ongoing collaboration with the Paris Galaxies, a Vision for Greater Paris research project at Sorbonne University.

Located in the heart of Saint Denis and founded by architect Julien Beller, Le 6B is a vast and now iconic “creative enterprise” hosting a hundred small creative businesses (artists’ studios, video production offices, design firms, etc.). Le 6B organizes an intensive program of noteworthy events such as La Fabrique à Rêve (Dream Factory) and actively contributes—through workshops and collaborations— to the transformation of the urban neighborhood and the development of Greater Paris. As a radically free and independent organization, Le 6B is an ideal test space for pioneering creative leadership strategies.

The student-led workshop took the form of a creative task force: PCA students Alissa Razan, Sophia Gorsun, Simone Langhoff, Natalia Mladenovic, and Renata Prieto visited the space, interviewed its founder and then approached Le 6B from an organizational design perspective. By mapping Le 6B’s economic and artistic ecosystem as a diagrammatic canvas, the students were able to gain a clear understanding of the current situation to detect future potential and areas of improvement.

Following the workshop, students conducted further service design research aimed at accelerating the local economy for and with the 6B creative community, as part of a broader reflection on the emerging creative and collaborative economy. This alternative economy offers true entrepreneurial, collective and collaborative possibilities for creatives—including 6B residents and PCA students.

Finally, the class developed a Design-Thinking solution to address a critical challenge: the renovation of Le 6B space. Reversing the problem and seeing it as an urban innovation opportunity, the team proposed that Le 6B transforms itself into a “Living Lab.” This approach would facilitate win-win cooperation with green building and smart cities partners (companies and research centers) who could demonstrate their expertise in a building fundamentally open to the public.

This Design Management workshop centered about Le 6B will lead to further collaboration with the artistic network of Greater Paris, including the design of a possible online collaborative platform. Stay tuned for the next chapter of the Paris Galaxies project and Creative Leadership class!