A FEDERATIVE PROJECT FOR HUMANITY

What is HANDILAB?

HANDILAB is a unique site in Europe, and possibly the world.

On 13 000 square meters, we will have startups and large companies focused on innovation and everything it can bring to addressing disability, especially regarding mobility, sports, media and culture.

HANDILAB is located in Saint-Denis, near the Seine and Olympic and paralympic Village. It’s a tertiary space with a FabLab, an auditorium, working spaces where innovative companies, whether they are small or large, will be able to conceive what will make the lives of people with disabilities easier.

This project seems particularly important now, at a time when a revolution of the metaverse and artificial intelligence is coming.

We hear about it everyday and we feel that in the field of disability, the metaverse and artificial intelligence can bring valuable transformations.

It goes without saying that technology will fundamentally change the lives of people with disabilities.

Before this project, there was no place where the topic of innovation was focused on serving the field of disability in France and in Europe.

The idea of HANDILAB is that it should not be, as I have said previously, a closed-off environment, only reserved to people with disabilities. On the contrary, it should be an extremely open environment that takes into account accessibility imperatives, and of course, will be exemplary in that area. It should also be an open space where performances can take place and where restaurants will naturally be present. We also have a whole series of partners who will open spaces that will be models of inclusivity.

These partners could either open a small grocery store, a temporary employment agency or even a bank branch.

Our main theme is inclusivity, but not just that, a life on-site that will be punctuated by daily work on technology and disability, meetings, exchanges on this theme, and also celebrations and awards.

It will be a sort of coworking space with a very strong theme.

Can you introduce Groupe Fiminco and the reasons why you were involved in this ambitious and unique project?

Groupe Fiminco is a private real estate company which has existed for over 25 years, rooted in Seine-Saint-Denis, where our headquarters were based for a long time.

We come from commercial real estate, so we have always thought about the purpose and location of our premises as we were mainly aimed at professional users.

For more than ten years, the company, through its significant patronage activities, has developed a large mediation activity.

Gradually, the real estate projects we design have benefited from this spirit, and we conceive and carry out operations by imagining the activities that will take place there, trying to be innovative. That is the case for HANDILAB, aimed at local residents and beyond, trying to have a real impact on the immediate environment and the broader environment of the projects we design.

What is the message you wish to convey with this project?

If I had to summarize the various messages, I would highlight two.

The first message is that technology will transform the lives of people living with disabilities, not only that, but particularly so, and that is important. This place will be a location where companies of very different sizes will focus on this subject, also aiming to develop economic activity.

The idea is to develop an open space, a true place of openness, which is very important for this project and, I think, is its real innovation.

The second message, which is a bit more philosophical, is to say that this way of addressing the subject of technology and disability is also a message to society that says that the way we treat people with disabilities is similar to the way we treat differences and the way we treat others.

And it is, I believe, particularly gratifying that it is happening in France, here in Seine-Saint-Denis. To have this openness which allows reflection, debate, not only regarding technology but also regarding the topics of difference and acceptance of the other.

Can you explain the various steps of the HANDILAB project?

Here are the various steps of the project. Right now, we are in the prefiguration phase of the project.

To be more precise, we are working on the technical side of the project, conducting archeological research on the field which happens at the start of a construction, while also reflecting on what the project will be.

We have thought of the best way to communicate on what HANDILAB is, and thus have opened a prefiguration phase with the creation of an endowment fund, that has nothing to do with the real estate operation. This endowment fund has three missions.

Its first mission is to communicate on what HANDILAB is and start raising awareness amongst startups and larger companies to join the project.

Its second mission is to give awards to startups, particularly the most virtuous in their research surrounding the disability sector.

Its third mission is to subsidize inventions which are particularly beneficial for people with disabilities, but often too costly for associations to access them.

Numerous partners, mostly large companies, have joined this endowment fund.

We are starting a major communication campaign with BFM Business, as well as a number of other media, with many videos, as well as round tables regarding HANDILAB and its unique approach on the societal handling of disability.

This phase is starting now and will continue until the inauguration of HANDILAB.

This is the first time the Paralympic Games will be held in Paris. The Olympic Games have, as you know, already taken place in Paris, but for the Paralympic Games it will be a first. For this occasion, we want to open all public spaces, namely the auditorium, the inclusive Micro-Folie that we are very proudly developing with La Villette, as well as a number of other spaces such as the FabLab etc. We aim to inaugurate all spaces that will be accessible to the general public, before the start of the Games.