Paris, France
2006
BioPark
Biotechnology Centre
The city is being rebuilt upon itself, and the industrial site of the Austerlitz urban development zone has been repurposed to accommodate a biotechnology centre with a 1980s architecture adapted to contemporary criteria.
Client
Program
Area
Planning
Client
SAGI
Program
Complete renovation of an existing building to create a biotechnology centre
Area
35 000 m²
Planning
Delivery
2007
The structure of this imposing building, typical of its era, remains unchanged. The project reframed and redefined the ensemble in order to make it more a part of the city and to link it to the new university district built beside the Seine. The built volumes were sectioned to provide space for a new circulation layout irrigating the heart of the block, now rid of its old paving and transformed into a square plaza. The hipped gables are clad in metal trellises supporting vegetation that adds colour to the repurposed building. Formerly austere, the heart of the block has become a green setting with façades staged in terraces, lined by a generous undulating pergola where roses, bellflowers, acanthus and clematis grow.
People pursue their careers behind this vegetal cascade that protects the offices from sunlight and invades the plaza. The project was implemented within a limited budget and within the strict constraint of using what already existed, and has brought a welcome breath of fresh air to this block, one street back from the Seine.
People pursue their careers behind this vegetal cascade that protects the offices from sunlight and invades the plaza. The project was implemented within a limited budget and within the strict constraint of using what already existed, and has brought a welcome breath of fresh air to this block, one street back from the Seine.
L’Oréal L4 Laboratories